The Dutchman was 0.108 seconds quicker than Leclerc, with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez third ahead of Daniel Ricciardo’s RB in a surprise fourth place.
McLaren’s Lando Norris appeared to miss an opportunity to compete with Verstappen for pole with a slow first sector of his final lap.
Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton could manage only 11th and 12th places.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was fifth, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri heading the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, Norris and Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg.
Norris had been fastest in both the first and second parts of qualifying and was quickest in both the second and third sectors of his final lap in the last session, but 0.8secs off the pace in the first sector.
McLaren have a major upgrade on their car, which Norris has all of and Piastri only about half, but the Briton said he had made too many errors.
“I just pushed too hard, simple as that,” Norris said. “Car was feeling very good. Just silly, to be honest – a couple of mistakes in Turn One and then a big spiral from there.
“A shame because the team have done a good job. The upgrades are working, happy with everything but not with one thing.”
Verstappen was surprised to be on pole, saying the car had felt quick in race trim but not in low-fuel specification.
The Dutchman said: “To be honest, it felt really terrible. Maybe that last session was just incredibly difficult to get the tyres to work. I didn’t really improve a lot on the soft but somehow we were first.
“Practice felt really nice, it felt like the car was in a really good window but in qualifying it didn’t feel like that any more. I was really not happy.
“In Q3 I saw I was only going 0.2secs faster and I was sliding around, no grip and they told me it was P1 and I thought it must be a joke but we’ll take it.”
