The Bahrain Grand Prix victor used his last lap in the dying moments of the hour-long FP3 session to bolt to a 1m29.735s and snatch top spot away from the defending champion.
Leclerc nicked the spoils by just 0.033s as Perez was only another six hundredths further back as preparations continued for a race that will now go ahead following the four-hour driver meeting on Friday night.
These crunch talks arrived after the Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for a missile attack on a nearby Aramco oil facility during FP1.
Keeping to form in 2022, it was the Alfa Romeos that wasted no time in hitting the track as Valtteri Bottas led team-mate Zhou Guanyu out of the pits in FP3.
They were followed by the Haas of Kevin Magnussen, but it was a subdued opening quarter of an hour as most team plans involved installation out- and in-laps rather than a complete run.
That left the track vacant for the two Ferraris, who missed out on a combined 45 minutes of running in FP2 after both drivers…
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