The top six drivers were separated by less than a second in the first practice.
Sainz was 0.047 seconds ahead of his teammate.
The Red Bulls were followed by the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and the Alpine of Fernando Alonso.
Verstappen was able to stay out of the barriers.
At Turn Five, the world champion had an oversteer moment as he struggled on the track.
Perez and Verstappen, who set identical times to the thousandth of a second, were 0.12 seconds behind Sainz.
The top 10 included Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas, McLaren's Lando Norris, Alpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly, and Sebastian Vettel.
The teams used young drivers in the session to fulfill their obligations.
The Alpha Tauri was the fastest followed by Williams, Mercedes, Alpine, and Pietro Fittipaldi.
Technical problems caused the sessions to be cut short.
The session was stopped due to Fittialdi's and Lawson's issues, and the session was not to be resumed.
The second session will run for 90 minutes and will be devoted to testing the 2023 tires.
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