The Briton, who finished 11th for the first sprint race of the season, which will take place on Saturday afternoon, remained at the top of the rankings with his 1m19.457s.
This gave him a slim cushion of 0.08s ahead of Perez, while Ferrari’s Leclerc was 0.2s overdue.
Perez comfortably led the way through the first half of the one-hour session as he continued to reduce his personal best lap on soft red-walled tires to keep his place at the top in time.
Lance Stroll was the first to hit the completely dry track, choosing a set of mediums, as he was quickly joined by Mick Schumacher of Haas and Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu.
Lando Norris put an early banker in the lead with 1m23.821s before Lewis Hamilton reduced the benchmark to 1m21.880s per set of media in eight minutes.
But then he was the one who moved and, for most of the early afternoon, remained at the top of the charts until he finished his stay at C4 soft Pirellis.
The Red Bull driver steered his RB18 in a three-mile lap for 1m19.978s to find eight-tenths ahead of his teammate initially, while Yuki Tsunoda led the middle runners in third place.
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18
Photo: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Perez seems to be on the run with 1/3 of the low fuel capacity to mimic the shorter afternoon sprint race, as he successively turns in a lap at high 1m19s and low 1m20s.
By comparison, Max Verstappen was in the high 1m20s for most of his running with soft tires and occasionally pushed 1m21s to offer a simulation closer to the full Grand Prix.
During his quick stay, Perez again improved to 1m19.790s to lead over Russell.
But Mercedes returned to the track after half an hour for a lap of the soft tire show, with the Briton scoring 1m19.457s to surpass the session on board his W13 with 0.3s over Perez.
Hamilton, meanwhile, dropped below 1m20s for a possible fourth to pull four tenths of defending champion Verstappen – who finished the session in ninth – before a headline series stalled when half the field went to the media.
Leclerc’s running plan was unusual in comparison, as he stuck to the yellow-walled complex in the early part of the session as part of nearly 20 Ferrari laps.
But as the last quarter of an hour approached, he returned to the track with soft tires for a faster stay and buzzed over the timeline for 1m19.740s to land second, trailing 0.2s to Russell but ahead of Perez’s third fastest. 0.05s as Carlos Sainz took sixth place.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75
Photo: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
During Leclerc’s last run with soft tires, he particularly hit the curbs of sausages at the chic Variante Alta to cause massive skating, which he eventually caught on the way out of the corner.
Fernando Alonso leveled his wet qualifying result on Friday afternoon aboard the Alpine, finishing fifth among the fastest ahead of Sainz, Verstappen and Tsunoda.
AlphaTauri, who struggled in qualifying as the track got wetter, regained some pace in dry conditions when Pierre Gasley pulled up to ninth ahead of Zhou.
Alexander Albon finished 11th ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Haas, his teammate Schumacher, while Stroll overtook his Aston teammate Sebastian Vettel.
Esteban Ocon, limping from a gearbox problem in qualifying, placed 16th above Williams by Nicholas Latifi.
Lando Norris’ task to start the sprint race in third place has been complicated by his lack of significant experience in dry running, driving just three laps before McLaren took care of a brake problem after the driver announced he had lost the pedal. in Tamburello.
He then slipped one lap after the plaid flag, while everyone else managed to make at least 28 laps.
On the other side of the garage, it was a little better, as Daniel Ricciardo missed the entire second training session, as the Australian’s car was spotted with the power unit removed.
Valteri Botas was also on the sidelines throughout the hour as Alfa Romeo tried to fix the muffler problem, which forced the Finn to park and raise a red flag in qualifying.
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