Lando Norris seemed to be on course to beat his team-mate before blowing his final lap with an error at the final corner.
The session was again dominated by the focus on track limits following the issues in Friday’s grand prix qualifying and changes to the Losail track prompted by Pirelli's discovery that repeated high-speed kerb impacts was damaging its tyres.
In Q3 – where all drivers ran soft tyres having progressed on mediums in both Q1 and Q2 – Verstappen lost his first flier for going too wide out of Turn 5, where wind was causing issues for the drivers.
That 1m24.453s lap, completed when the Red Bull driver’s soft tyres were at their freshest, still would not have been good enough to get ahead of the McLaren drivers when they completed their opening efforts later in the final segment.
Unlike at other sprint qualifying events this year, the Losail circuit's smooth new track surface meant the drivers were able to push on for multiple laps throughout the segment, with the cars also fuelled to run throughout in anticipation of possible extra runs being needed in case of times being lost due to track limits.
Piastri’s opening time was shaded by Norris’s 1m24.536s, which Verstappen failed to pip on his second attempt meant he would ended up behind the McLaren pair.
On their final runs, Piastri stole ahead with a 1m24.454s and the focus switched to Norris behind, as he had led his team-mate in the opening two sectors.
But when Norris ran very wide out of the final turn he abandoned his lap, which meant Piastri went one better than the second place he took in Spa sprint shootout qualifying earlier this year.
Behind the top three came George Russell, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, with all bar Russell boosted by Fernando Alonso losing his final Q3 time for a track limits off at Turn 13 and dropping him from fifth to ninth.
Esteban Ocon rounded out the Q3 top 10 for Alpine.
Source: Autosport