Verstappen has a 10-grid place penalty – imposed for going over the engine limit for a season – so the world champion will start 11th with Leclerc and Sergio Perez on the front row.
Lando Norris is hoping to take advantage of Verstappen’s grid penalty but could only qualify fifth, which becomes fourth, and he will have Oscar Piastri and George Russell behind him.
Norris is 76 points behind Verstappen in the drivers’ championship but will need to overtake three cars to win for a second time in his career.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz qualified eighth from Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, with surprisingly no red flags in the wet qualifying.
“I definitely did not expect that this weekend. Obviously with the tricky conditions we could do something above our expectations,” said Leclerc, who took his 25th career F1 pole.
“Without this rain, probably P5 was the position we were fighting for with the Mercedes especially. But with the rain it helped us a little bit, but I’m not going to complain.
“I’m really happy, I’m really happy with the lap in Q3, and it’s good to be back on the front part of the grid. Now we’ve got to finalise that tomorrow.
