Verstappen ended up third after the Ferrari pair had nipped ahead on the first Q3 runs, them could not beat them even though neither Leclerc or Sainz improved on their second efforts.
Now qualifying has concluded, Verstappen faces an investigation for a Q1 impeding incident as does George Russell, while Lewis Hamilton is also under investigation for a yellow flag speeding incident.
On the first runs in Q3, the Ferrari cars appeared to respond well to the track temperature dropping a touch and Leclerc edged Sainz by 0.067s with a 1m17.166s lap.
Verstappen slotted in 0.120s behind while Sergio Perez and the Mercedes drivers had to run used softs for the start of the final segment.
Then when the second runs commenced, the Ferrari cars led the pack around but neither driver improved and that opened the door to Verstappen.
He posted personal bests in the first and second sector – the latter Q3’s fastest – but it was not enough and he wound up 0.097s adrift.
Daniel Ricciardo edged Perez to take a sensational fourth for AlphaTauri, with Hamilton unable to recreate his Q2-leading form and so he ended up sixth as the lead Mercedes driver.
Oscar Piastri was seventh while his team-mate Lando Norris was the highest-profile Q1 faller, with Russell eighth.
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu rounded out the top 10 for Alfa Romeo.
Source: Autosport