Verstappen enjoyed unusually little practice time this weekend, having given up his seat in first practice as part of the sport’s mandatory driver testing program and then losing almost all the second session to red flags along with the rest of the field.
His hitherto dominant RB19’s usually dominant form was absent in the final hour of practice yesterday afternoon, leading to some frenetic garage activity to try to solve its set-up woes, including four changes to the front suspension in the session and another ahead of qualifying.
The last tweak attempted to solve the problem, with Verstappen cruising through all three qualifying segments and needing just one flying lap to take pole position in the top-10 shootout - much to his surprise.
“Very weird,” he said. “The whole weekend so far has been a bit of a struggle.
“We definitely improved the car from qualifying. From lap 1 it all seemed a bit more together and we could definitely push more. I’m very happy to be on pole.”
It meant Leclerc lacked the opportunity to take his second consecutive pole position after Las Vegas, settling instead for a ninth front-row start for the year.
The Ferrari driver was likewise surprised to be starting so far up the grid, having been braced for a worse result after the interrupted build-up to the weekend.
“Considering the weekend we’ve had, until now I did not expect it at all,” he said. “I’m really, really happy with the second place. In Q1 and Q2 I was worried to go through. At the end, a front row - it’s amazing.”
Oscar Piastri completed the top three for McLaren, though unlike the front-row starters, the Australian believed there could have been more performance extracted from his car with a cleaner lap.
“Difficult session,” he said. “It’s been a bit of a messy one. The pace has been there, but just a lot of mistakes.
“The car is very quick this weekend. A nice turnaround from Vegas for us. I’m happy to be back in the top three.”
George Russell, who is suffering with illness following the tight turnaround from the hectic Las Vegas Grand Prix last weekend, qualified fourth, setting up a tight conclusion to the battle for second in the constructors standings between Ferrari and Mercedes between him and Leclerc ahead.
Neither driver will have their teammate in close proximity, with Carlos Sainz eliminated 16th and Lewis Hamilton knocked out 11th, with both lacking outright pace in the qualifying hour and searching for answers.
Lando Norris qualified fifth ahead of an excellent Yuki Tsunoda, while Fernando Alonso and Nico Hülkenberg sharing the fourth row in seventh and eighth.
Sergio Pérez had his fastest lap deleted for track limits, dropping him from sixth to ninth, while Pierre Gasly couldn’t improve on his Q2 time after allegedly being impeded by Piastri, leaving him 10th.
Hamilton will start 11th, the culmination of a difficult final weekend for the Briton in his unloved Mercedes W13, ahead of Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll.
Thai driver Alex Albon will line up 14th and with a perfect head-to-head qualifying record against teammate Logan Sargeant for the season, having beaten the American rookie in qualifying for all 22 grands prix and six sprint sessions.
Daniel Ricciardo will line up 15th for AlphaTauri after struggling for grip in Q2.
Sainz qualified a disastrous 16th for Ferrari. The Spaniard has struggled for pace since crashing his car in second practice on Friday, but traffic problems from the beginning of the final lap left him unable to improve enough to make it out of the bottom five, hindering the Scuderia’s hopes of closing the four-point gap to Mercedes for second in the constructors championship.
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen will start 17th ahead of Alfa Romeo teammates Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, while American rookie Sargeant will start last for Williams after having both his lap times deleted for exceeding track limits at the first turn.
Sargeant is the only driver without a contract on the grid for 2024, and his last-place qualification completed a qualifying whitewash alongside teammate Albon.