Initial partition for boot on first disk (/dev/sda) always starts at sector 2 or 3?

Issue

• Despite trying multiple options in the build, the initial partition always starts at sector 2 - leaving sector 1 vacant:

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l /dev/vda

Disk /dev/vda: 8589 MB, 8589934592 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 16644 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00063452

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/vda1   *           3        1018      512000   83  Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/vda2            1018       16645     7875584   8e  Linux LVM
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.