Almost the entire field opened their lap tallies on the medium tyres, barring the hard-shod Ferrari duo, and ownership over the fastest lap time quickly changed hands as the times tumbled.
Valtteri Bottas was among the first drivers to set a somewhat representative time, but it didn't last long at the top as the circuit continued to rubber in; Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton set times in the high 1m15s, until Verstappen vaulted to the top with a 1m15.487s.
George Russell found 0.005s to move to the top, but Bottas then reclaimed the bragging rights before he was quickly displaced by Esteban Ocon.
The Frenchman was surpassed by Alonso, who went nearly a second faster before Verstappen brought the session into the 1m13s with a 1m13.985s.
Alonso attempted to beat the Dutchman, but his 1m14.227s fell down in the final sector as his opening salvo was initially quicker. Hamilton was successful in his attempt to reach the top, shading his 2021 title rival by a scant 0.001s, but Verstappen out-did the Briton with a 1m13.857s.
Verstappen's next efforts exerted his control, with a 1m13.567s followed by a 1m13.312s to bring the medium-compound running to a conclusion.
On softs, Alonso leapfrogged him with a 1m12.786s and held the fort for a good 10 minutes until countryman Sainz fired in a 1m12.569s to reclaim his time-topping efforts from the opening practice session.
Although Verstappen opened his soft-tyre running with the best first sector, but lost ground in the following splits and plonked his car into third, ahead of Charles Leclerc, who was struggling with his car "jumping" through the tighter corners.
Alonso also stormed to the quickest first sector on another soft-tyre effort, but lost ground thanks to traffic in the final part of the lap and could not overhaul Sainz on that occasion - and was shy of the quickest time by 0.113s.
After stringing a better lap together on his next run, Verstappen logged a 1m12.462s despite not setting any purple sectors in that particular tilt.
Leclerc was less than a tenth away from Verstappen on a far stronger tour of the Monte Carlo circuit, and overcame team-mate Sainz to grab second.
Sainz then produced a red flag after fluffing his lines on the exit of the Swimming Pool, clipping the inside wall and coming to rest in the barrier to enforce a pause in proceedings with his front-right suspension broken.
The session resumed with 12 minutes left on the clock when the stricken Ferrari was mopped up by the marshals, but there was no further performance runs forthcoming as race runs became the focus of the remaining minutes of the session.
This cemented Verstappen's place at the top, less than a tenth clear of Leclerc's best effort of the session while Sainz could not improve on third-best after his crash.
Alonso was fourth fastest, just over two tenths ahead of Lando Norris, who suffered a delay to the start of the session as apparent electrical issues required fixes within the McLaren garage. The Briton's car later suffered further issues, and was ordered to minimise his throttle inputs ahead of an unwelcome retreat to the pits.
Hamilton took his Mercedes to sixth, admitting that he did not have the tools to go faster, as Sergio Perez was seventh on the timing boards.
Bottas beat the two Alpines to eighth; Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon completed the top 10, finishing just ahead of Aston Martin's Lance Stroll.
Alex Albon managed to get onto the circuit on the resumption of the session following extensive repairs to his Williams FW45, having crashed at the end of FP1, and leapfrogged team-mate Logan Sargeant to the 19th-best time at the session's close.
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Time | Gap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Max Verstappen |
 |
Red Bull | Red Bull | 30 | 1'12.462 | |
| 2 |  Charles Leclerc |
 |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 33 | 1'12.527 | 0.065 |
| 3 |  Carlos Sainz |
 |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 22 | 1'12.569 | 0.107 |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso |
 |
Aston Martin | Mercedes | 32 | 1'12.682 | 0.220 |
| 5 |  Lando Norris |
 |
McLaren | Mercedes | 18 | 1'12.906 | 0.444 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton |
 |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 29 | 1'12.960 | 0.498 |
| 7 |  Sergio Perez |
 |
Red Bull | Red Bull | 30 | 1'12.991 | 0.529 |
| 8 |  Valtteri Bottas |
 |
Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 33 | 1'13.050 | 0.588 |
| 9 |  Pierre Gasly |
 |
Alpine | Renault | 28 | 1'13.089 | 0.627 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon |
 |
Alpine | Renault | 30 | 1'13.162 | 0.700 |
| 11 |  Lance Stroll |
|
Aston Martin | Mercedes | 31 | 1'13.185 | 0.723 |
| 12 | George Russell |
 |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 32 | 1'13.191 | 0.729 |
| 13 |  Zhou Guanyu |
 |
Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 32 | 1'13.354 | 0.892 |
| 14 |  Kevin Magnussen |
 |
Haas | Ferrari | 28 | 1'13.457 | 0.995 |
| 15 |  Nico Hulkenberg |
 |
Haas | Ferrari | 33 | 1'13.520 | 1.058 |
| 16 |  Yuki Tsunoda |
 |
AlphaTauri | Red Bull | 22 | 1'13.641 | 1.179 |
| 17 | Nyck de Vries |
 |
AlphaTauri | Red Bull | 34 | 1'13.663 | 1.201 |
| 18 |  Oscar Piastri |
 |
McLaren | Mercedes | 30 | 1'13.673 | 1.211 |
| 19 |  Alex Albon |
 |
Williams | Mercedes | 10 | 1'14.217 | 1.755 |
| 20 |  Logan Sargeant |
 |
Williams | Mercedes | 33 | 1'14.238 | 1.776 |
| View full results | |||||||
