The fight for pole was an unusually tight four-driver affair contested between Leclerc, Norris, Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen still had the edge in his sweet-handling Red Bull Racing machine, but he failed to string together either of his pole attempts cleanly to take top spot.
His first flying lap was spoilt by teammate Sergio Pérez, who appeared directly ahead of him on the track in the final sector. Verstappen understeered in the dirty air of the sister car and almost ran wide at the final corner, costing him precious time.
He almost ruined his last lap himself with a lock-up at the uphill first turn, but a sizzling final sector appeared to get the job done over Leclerc by just 0.005 seconds - until video replays showed him running fully over the track boundary exiting turn 19.
His lap was deleted, handing Leclerc his second grand prix pole of the season.
“As a team we did a great job,” he said. “I was feeling good and the lap, I was happy throughout qualifying.
“The last lap in Q3, there was a bit of mistakes here and there, but I think it wasn’t easy for anybody.”
Norris was an unexpected second place and 0.130 seconds behind Leclerc despite having forecast ahead of the weekend that the Circuit of the Americas, featuring several technical slow corners, wouldn’t suit his ever-improving McLaren.
“Probably closer to pole than I was expecting,” he said. “I think there was still that little chance to potentially get it today.
“Pleasantly surprised to be sitting here in the top three, first of all, but then especially in P2 - a good day for us.”
Hamilton got within 0.009 seconds of Norris to qualify third in what the Briton said was a validating result for Mercedes’s last set of upgrades for the season.
“A good session for us,” he said. “I’m really grateful for the improvements that the team have made with the car.
“Everyone’s worked so hard to bring some upgrades and for us to be this close to McLaren and Ferrari and even the Red Bulls. I think it’s a showing of just how hard everyone’s worked.”
Carlos Sainz and George Russell for Ferrari and Mercedes were 0.1 and 0.2 seconds respectively off the back of the leading group but still ahead of the frustrated Verstappen in sixth.
Alpine teammates Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were closely matched in seventh and eighth ahead of Sergio Pérez, who is under pressure to keep his seat in the middle of a form slump, and Oscar Piastri, for whom a slow middle sector on his final lap cost him a shot at the front two rows.
AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was 11th and unlucky to miss out on Q3 by less than 0.2 seconds. He pipped Alfa Romeo teammates Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, who wills tart 12th and 13th.
Kevin Magnussen led the way for Haas at the team’s home race, qualifying ahead of the returned Daniel Ricciardo, who is back racing for AlphaTauri after recovering from a broken hand sustained in August, and teammate Nico Hülkenberg.
Fernando Alonso was knocked out in Q1 for the first time this season with an astoundingly off-pace 17th the Spaniard described as the maximum from the car - despite the AMR23 carrying significant upgrades.
His teammate, Lance Stroll, fared even worse in 19th, having lost almost all the weekend’s sole practice hour to brake problems.
Thai driver Alex Albon will start 18th, while American teammate Logan Sargeant will prop up the grid in 20th.