Verstappen, pole-getter and winner at last year’s Melbourne race, overcame a difficult start to the weekend, having been off the pace in all three practice sessions and the first two segments of qualifying, to set two laps good enough for pole position when it counted at the end of Q3.
It was the Dutchman’s third successive pole of the season and puts him in prime position to claim his 10th successive victory dating back to last year’s Japanese Grand Prix.
“It was a bit unexpected today in qualifying, but I’m very happy with Q3,” he said. “I think both of those laps felt very, very nice, very enjoyable.
“It’s been a tricky weekend so far, but we managed to be there in the end, so I’m happy with that.”
Carlos Sainz was a remarkable second, securing a front-row start in his comeback performance following an appendectomy two weeks ago.
The Spaniard led the first two segments of qualifying and is Ferrari’s best hope at challenging Verstappen given the supremacy of starting position in the finishing order at Albert Park.
“It’s been a tough couple of weeks,” Sainz said. “A lot of days in bed waiting for this moment to see if I could be here today.
“To make it to this weekend and to put it on the front row after leading through qualifying, I was almost not believing it.
“I’m very happy to be here and very happy to be challenging the Red Bulls this weekend.”
Sergio Pérez qualified third, but his second-row start is under the cloud of a grid penalty for appearing to impede Nico Hülkenberg earlier in qualifying.
Regardless of his starting position, the Mexican was anticipating a battle on Sunday.
“I think tomorrow we’ve got a fight on our hands with the Ferraris and the rest of the field,” he said. “Starting position is not that relevant at the moment.
“We’ve changed a bit our strategy for tomorrow. Let’s see who can survive the most on the [tyre] degradation side.”
Pérez wills tart ahead of Lando Norris on the second row, with Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri sharing the third row.
Leclerc was forced to abandon his final qualifying lap after a mistake at Turn 12, while Piastri suspected his car was damaged before Q3, potentially explaining the Norris getting ahead of him for the first time since first practice.
George Russell qualified seventh for Mercedes ahead of a superb Yuki Tsunoda, who cracked the top 10 for the second week in succession for the backmarker RB team.
Aston Martin teammates Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso didn’t figure in the Q3 fight, qualifying off the pace in ninth and 10th.
Lewis Hamilton was the frontrunner eliminated in 11th thanks to Tsunoda’s foray into Q3. The two-time Australian Grand Prix winner has been uncomfortable in his Mercedes all weekend and missed out on the top 10 by 0.059 seconds.
Thai driver Alex Albon qualified 12th for Williams ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon, who did well to make it into Q2 after hitting the wall and picking up a puncture early in the qualifying hour.
Nico Hülkenberg qualified 16th ahead of Pierre Gasly and a horror home performance for Australian Daniel Ricciardo.
Ricciardo was set to comfortably progress to Q2 but had his fastest lap time deleted for running off the track, dropping him to 18th.
Zhou Guanyu qualified 19th and last for Sauber after his front wing bizarrely failed when he ran over the kerbs at turn 10.
Logan Sargeant did not qualify after Williams withdrew him from the weekend last night to give his chassis to teammate Albon.
Albon wrote off his car in a crash during first practice, catching the team short without a spare car.
Williams boss James Vowles made the call to prioritise Albon based on the Thai driver’s greater potential to score points in the grand prix.