Verstappen’s first lap in Q3 proved to be the benchmark, with no driver getting close to his time of 1 minutes 27.472 seconds.
The Dutchman was unable to improve with his second lap, lapping 0.2 seconds slower, but even this would have been enough to secure pole position for the reigning champion and title leader.
“Today I felt very comfortable in the car,” Verstappen said. “We improved the car a little bit overnight, and that gave me a bit more confidence to attack the high-speed corners.
“I’m confident with the race pace that we have, that tomorrow the car will work really well too.”
Leclerc improved by more than half a second on his second lap to snatch a place on the front row, but the Monegasque sounded flat to have still be so far behind the imperious Verstappen.
“In the second lap I put everything together, and that as what was in the car today,” he said. “I’m really happy with the lap. A shame we are a bit further away than we hoped.
“But tomorrow is the race and I hope we have a good surprise and will be able to challenge the Red Bull.”
Sergio Pérez had been provisionally on the front row after the first laps but failed to improve with his second, but the Mexican hinted Red Bull Racing’s race pace would help him to move past Ferrari today.
“Max has done a tremendous lap,” he said. “I think that was not possible for me today. I think the front two was achievable.
“I think we are still in the fight for tomorrow. Tomorrow is a long race and anything can happen.”
Fernando Alonso will join Pérez on the second row, the Spaniard just 0.055 seconds off a front-row start for Aston Martin.
Australian Oscar Piastri outqualified McLaren teammate Lando Norris on the third row, while Mercedes locked out the fourth row with George Russell ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
Yuki Tsunoda was the faster RB driver in ninth ahead of Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin in 10th.
Shock Ferrari debutant Oliver Bearman qualified 11th in Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, a successful conclusion to the first day in the car.
Sainz withdrew from the weekend on Friday after being diagnosed with appendicitis.
Bearman had only FP3 to prepare himself and ended up missing out on the top 10 by only 0.036 seconds.
Thai driver Alex Albon will start 12th ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo, the RB driver half a second slower than teammate Tsunoda.
Nico Hülkenberg will start 15th after his Haas car lost power early in Q2, alongside Valtteri Bottas in 16th on the eighth row of the grid.
Renault-owned Alpine’s woes continued for a second round, with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly lining up 17th and 18th after never having looked likely to make it into Q2.
The only drivers behind the ailing French duo were Williams pilot Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu, both of whom crashed out of FP3 earlier in the day.
Zhou was unable to set a time after repairs for his heavy smash during practice took almost all Q1 to complete. Though he got out on track, he didn’t have enough time to lap the circuit and start a timed lap, leaving him last.