Leclerc, the points leader and two-time winner of the 2022 races so far, is making the most of the extreme evolution of the track on the brand new street track to set the benchmark for 1m31.098s.
That gave him a thin cushion of seven hundredths of a second ahead of Russell, as the W13 has a more efficient front wing plus a lower specification of the compressive force of the rear and beam wings for this weekend.
Max Verstappen brought out his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez in the four, but the reigning champion was depressed by high temperatures in Florida, which interrupted his run.
Nicholas Latifi led Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel out of the box to a chorus of applause as the 80,000-strong crowd clapped their eyes on cars for the first time.
All but Mick Schumacher climbed the 3.3-mile track in the first two minutes of the one-hour session, with the majority completing their early laps with a medium C3 tire.
Zhou Guanyu and Perez rushed deep into Turn 1 as they pushed the boundaries of the hot asphalt, which was registered at more than 50 degrees Celsius.
Russell, meanwhile, was forced to jump on the brakes and stop at the pitlane to avoid Fernando Alonso’s Alpine when the two-time champion left the garage.
George Russell, Mercedes W13
Photo: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
To acclimatize to the new location, most teams gave up the usual installation tours and kept their pilots on the road – Schumacher eventually joined eight minutes later.
The green pavement on the track turned out to be particularly slippery, as Yuki Tsunoda and Leclerc had to rejoin after they both lost their backs and turned their cars as Verstappen crossed the line, touching the outer wall at turn 16 with a left-hander.
Despite their early fears, Leclerc ran out of time with his 1m34.846s to hold a three-tenth lead before Verstappen jumped to 1m33.44s to escape with 0.7s.
Ferrari and Red Bull continued to swap places at the top of the dashboard as the track unfolded to offer more traction, bringing lap times below the 1 m33s barrier.
The early unofficial battle peaked with 1m32.442s from Carlos Sainz, as Leclerc escaped with only a tenth of the same midfield Pirelli to knock down soft runner Perez in third.
But Red Bull’s run was quickly halted when Verstappen, frustrated by his inability to fully learn the track, was called to the pits after just nine laps.
The team then inspected the back of his RB18 while battling overheating.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18
Photo: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Valteri Botas then pulled out the red flags after 25 minutes when the Finn lost the back of his Alfa Romeo through a mid-speed long left player on a 7-8 turn.
He seemed to suffer a momentary over-turn, and as the C42 ran over the painted run-off, he was powerless to resist as the car spun back into the TecPro barrier.
The rear wing seems to have borne the brunt of the blow. Botas did not resume the session.
Eight minutes later, green flags were flown, and the break allowed Red Bull to send both Perez and Verstappen for the last quarter of an hour.
Sainz then appeared on a set of soft C4 blends and could trigger a second red flag in quick succession when it underwent a large turn at high turn speed 4.
The Ferrari driver lost the rear and ran over the painted gutter, fortunately avoiding the perimeter walls on both sides of the runway, and he crashed with a break from the front right.
Invading with fear for his front rival, Verstappen soon returned to speed, jumping to the top with an effort of 1m31.350s on soft tires, then improving to 1m31.277s.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL36
Photo: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
But he soon called it a day, jumping out of the car four minutes to the end after not completing more than five laps aboard his hot RB18.
His advantage was 0.5 seconds ahead of the new Alexander Albon, who overtook the timeline by 1m31,854s, also on soft tires, to climb second on board his Williams.
Then the late improvements from Leclerc and Russell came to set the pace, as Verstappen held third and ended up 0.18s behind the fastest Ferrari.
Gasley finished fifth over Sainz, with Albon eventually finishing seventh over Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, the only driver to deal with the slowest hard tire available.
Daniel Ricciardo finished in the top 10, but is in the process of investigating an incident with Mick Schumacher on his back, McLaren seems to be picking up and forcing the pursuing Haas to dive off the line.
In a session in which many were caught in such cases of possible blocking, Imola podium finalist Lando Norris overtook Alonso, Zhou and Vettel to 11th.
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