Verstappen will start ahead of Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) 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.
After a brief red flag for Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo grinding to a halt with a mechanical problem and then restarting, Verstappen set the early pace at 1m21.988s in damp but drying conditions on intermediate tyres.
He lowered that to 1m21.739s in the closing minutes before Alonso took P1 with 1m21.583s and then 1m21.481s. But Verstappen wasn’t to be denied with 1m20.851s.
Falling at the first hurdle were Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Pierre Gasly (Alpine – who was furious to balked at the chicane by Sainz on his last lap), Nyck de Vries (AlphaTauri), Logan Sargeant (Williams) and Zhou.
Alex Albon was an early adopter of slick tyres on his Williams as the track dried, setting the pace at 1m18.725s, a second quicker than Alonso on intermediates. Verstappen went P2 on slicks, almost four tenths slower as the rain started to fall again.
Knocked out at this point were Charles Leclerc (whose Ferrari team didn’t put him on slicks when he asked for them), Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Lance Stroll (Aston), Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Valtteri Bottas (Alfa).
Verstappen set the early pace at 1m27.059s, 0.227s ahead of Alonso, then lowered the bar to 1m25.858s, 1.244s ahead of Hulkenberg – who just beat a red flag as Oscar Piastri crashed his McLaren at Turn 7.
The session resumed but the track was much wetter, so the grid was already set.
Alonso will start third, ahead of the Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Esteban Ocon will start sixth for Alpine, ahead of Lando Norris (McLaren) and Carlos Sainz, the latter under investigation for impeding at the chicane.
Piastri and Albon, who didn't run, will start from row five.