A flurry of soft-tyre runs in preparation for qualifying later on Friday defined the final 10 minutes of practice, and Verstappen was one of the earlier takers to punch in a 1m35.912s to overturn Alex Albon's timesheet-topping lap as Williams opened running on the softest compound.
The Dutchman's time could not be beaten; team-mate Sergio Perez set a time 0.3s shy, but Leclerc got closer and was about half a tenth short in each sector of the ultimate headliner.
Lewis Hamilton reeled off best splits in the opening pair of sectors, but lost time in the final part of the lap to cross the line a tenth short of Leclerc's effort - and two-hundredths clear of Perez's soft-tyre time.
Kevin Magnussen took his vastly upgraded Haas - which now features the in-vogue downwashing sidepods to match the other teams - to fifth on the timing boards, a scant 0.002s ahead of George Russell's Mercedes.
Albon's time was good enough for seventh over Carlos Sainz, who noticeably struggled with the bumpiness of the circuit on board a stiffly sprung Ferrari, but nonetheless made incremental gains over the course of the session. Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10, just clear of home favourite Logan Sargeant.
The early phases of the session prioritised running on the harder tyres, and Verstappen took the early advantage on the hard compound tyre despite several instances of surpassing track limits - which are not monitored in practice.
Hamilton, trialling Mercedes' new floor that it hopes will offer insight towards its progress for 2024, then moved ahead following the opening 15 minutes of the session by a tenth and on the same compound of tyre, having set the best second sector up to that point.
Source: Autosport