Sainz will start ahead of George Russell (Mercedes) and Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc in Sunday’s race after the one-hour qualifying session on Friday, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top 10 shootout of Q3.
With the times tumbling at the end of the session, Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) set the pace at 1m31.991s, a tenth clear of Sergio Perez’s Red Bull when the red flag was required for Lance Stroll’s huge accident at the final corner, which ripped the left-front wheel from his Aston Martin.
Falling at the first hurdle were Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Logan Sargeant (Williams), Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) and the uninjured Stroll.
Sainz set the fastest time at 1m31.439s, three tenths quicker than Russell’s 1m31.743s.
Knocked out at this point were Red Bull’s Verstappen, who could only manage 1m32.173s and AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson knocked him out on his final lap, Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Perez (who spun at Turn 3), Alex Albon (Williams) and Tsunoda, who didn’t set a time.
Sainz set the pace in the first runs with 1m31.170s, a quarter of a second ahead of Leclerc.
On the final runs, Sainz improved to 1m30.984s and Leclerc was unable to beat him by 0.079s.
Russell jumped to second, producing 1m31.056s, missing pole by just 0.072s.
McLaren’s Lando Norris will start fourth, ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), an impressive Kevin Magnussen (Haas), Fernando Alonso (Aston), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) and Lawson.