Spots of rain falling ahead of Q1 led to that segment featuring many offs and a red flag – with Fernando Alonso picking up damage in an incident that meant he was not a pole threat.
In the other Red Bull, Sergio Perez was knocked out in Q2 after he too went off the track in what were tricky conditions throughout the session.
In a fully dry Q3, Verstappen was the sole runner to take new softs for the first runs and duly blitzed to a provisional pole time of 1m12.272s.
This ended up being the pole time as the Dutchman’s rivals – running ahead on the road – could not threaten then even with new tyres.
Home hero Carlos Sainz shot onto the front row with a final lap that featured personal bests in all three sectors, edging out his former team-mate Lando Norris, who took third for McLaren.
Then came Pierre Gasly, who faces two post-qualifying investigations for appearing to impede Sainz and Verstappen in separate incidents in the busy Q1.
Lewis Hamilton had looked to be Verstappen’s main threat for pole after he sat second after his first Q3 run on used tyres, but the Briton paid the price for not improving enough in the final sector and he could only score fifth with his best lap of the final segment.
Lance Stroll finished sixth as the lead Aston Martin, ahead of Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg, who completed just one Q3 run – offset from the rest and set a few minutes before the final fliers.
Alonso led the pack for these as Aston used the most time they could to work on his damaged floor, but he never appeared to be in the fight for the top positions as a result and so only beat Oscar Piastri to 10th.
Source: Autosport