Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton couldn’t capitalise on the team’s cold-weather resurgence, however, flopping out of the pole battle in an error-prone 10th.
Russell revelled in his car’s ability to extract grip from the super-cool track, which dipped to as low as 12°C as the pole battle started just after 11pm local time, the Briton taking provisional pole from Sainz by 0.2 seconds with their first laps.
The two contenders split their strategies for their final runs, with Sainz opting for two warm-up laps while Russell insisted on just one, preferring instead to be last on circuit to make the most of the rapidly evolving track conditions.
Sainz rocketed to provisional top spot with his lap, but Russell wasn’t to be stopped. Last across the line, the Briton took pole position by 0.098 seconds.
“It feels incredible to be back on pole,” he said. “We’ve been so quick all weekend, and I just knew coming into that last Q3 lap it was going to be the one that counts.
“We’ve got to do a deep dive to understand why we’ve been so quick this weekend, because it’s been a real surprise.”
Sainz was surprised to get close to taking pole position, Ferrari having prioritised race pace to get ahead this weekend.
“It was a tight quali,” he said. “A bit closer to pole than what I was expecting, really.
“We need to stay confident that tomorrow we can be fighting at the front even more than today, so if today we were close in quali, tomorrow we might have the chance of going for the win. That will be the target.”
Pierre Gasly was a superb third for Alpine, comfortably improving on his previous best of seventh in Barcelona and Austin and also besting his teammate’s best of fourth, set last time out in Brazil.
The result is a boon for his midfield Alpine team, which catapulted itself to sixth on the title table with its double podium in Brazil and could now consolidate the place if Gasly were to convert to a similarly lofty finish.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “Honestly we didn’t think we’d be able to achieve a top three in quali.
“It was an incredible lap, especially around this track, where you’re flirting with the walls everywhere through the lap.
“I knew crossing the line it would be a good lap, but when they came over the radio and told me we’re lining up third tomorrow, it was amazing.”
Charles Leclerc was fourth in the second Ferrari, his momentum hit by a small error on his first lap that left him battling on the back foot.
Max Verstappen recovered from an off-the-pace Thursday practice to qualify fifth, though the Red Bull Racing driver was still 0.485 seconds off the pace, having never been in pole contention.
He qualified ahead of nominal title rival Lando Norris, who managed just sixth and a disappointing 0.696 seconds off pole.
Verstappen will win his fourth successive championship if he finishes ahead of Norris, needing only to prevent the Briton outscoring him by more than two points to seal the deal.
Yuki Tsunoda was a strong seventh for RB ahead of Oscar Piastri in eighth in the second McLaren and Nico Hülkenberg’s Haas in ninth.
Hamilton, who swept both Thursday practice sessions, struggled badly in the cool conditions with a set of critical errors that left him without a representative time.
His first lap was scuppered by a lock-up into turn 12, leading onto the Strip, while his second was lost to a snap of oversteer through the first sector.
Esteban Ocon will start 11th in the second Alpine ahead of Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu, who made just his third appearance outside the bottom five in the third-last qualifying session of his career.
Williams rookie Franco Colapinto was 14th fastest but smashed his cars against the barriers on his final lap of the session, clipping the apex barrier at turn 16 and breaking his front-left suspension.
Unable to steer, his car slammed into the concrete wall at the exit of the corner, destroying both right-hand wheels and wings at both ends of his car, scattering debris over the circuit along the way.
The Argentine was uninjured, but his Williams team will now be forced into its sixth major rebuild over the last three grands prix.
Liam Lawson was 15th for RB after cancelling his final flying lap shortly before the red flag.
Sergio Pérez bombed out of qualifying in the bottom five for the second time in the last three grands prix and failed to make the top 10 on the grid for the fourth time in five events, piling yet more pressure on the under-fire Mexican to retain his seat next season.
Fernando Alonso qualified 17th for Aston Martin ahead of Alex Albon and Valtteri Bottas, though the Finn will start last after taking a new hybrid battery ahead of the weekend outside of his season-long allocation.
Lance Stroll will move up to 19th after having qualified a hamstrung last, with his mechanics frantically needing to change his energy recovery system after it failed in the final minutes of FP3 a little under three hours earlier.