Verstappen will start ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.
As this is a sprint weekend format, these sessions set the grid for Sunday’s race and have no impact on Saturday’s sprint event.
Mercedes’ George Russell set the pace at 1m10.0340s, although he was under investigation for impeding Pierre Gasly’s Alpine at the pit exit, a tenth clear of Verstappen and Leclerc.
Falling at the first hurdle were Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Logan Sargeant (Williams) and Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo).
McLaren’s Lando Norris set the fastest time at 1m10.021s, 0.14s quicker than Verstappen.
Knocked out at this point were Nico Hulkenberg (Haas, who was angry about being balked by a Ferrari), Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and his team-mate Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Alex Albon (Williams, who lost his fastest time due to exceeding track limits).
Having avoided the threatening rain clouds thus far, teams sent their drivers straight out in Q3.
On the first runs, Verstappen set the bar at 1m10.727s, three tenths ahead of Leclerc. Then the rain arrived, and the session was red flagged and not resumed.
Aston Martin locked out the second row, with Stroll just ahead of Fernando Alonso. The Mercedes of Hamilton and Russell took the third row, ahead of Norris in seventh and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Oscar Piastri spun his McLaren off the track at Juncao as the rain arrived. That also delayed Sergio Perez, who could only manage ninth.