The reigning world champion was victorious in the Brazilian GP sprint race on Saturday, beating polesitter Lando Norris into Turn 1 before managing from the front to pick up his fourth sprint race triumph of the season.
Norris recovered from dropping to third on the opening lap to take the runner-up result for McLaren, as the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez also rallied from a poor start to finish in third place.
Both Mercedes and Ferrari struggled in the sprint race, seeing George Russell a distant fourth place ahead of Charles Leclerc. Yuki Tsunoda scored AlphaTauri’s first sprint race points in sixth ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz.
But the grand prix will see Verstappen start from pole ahead of Leclerc, with an all-Aston Martin second row of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, following the shaken-up Friday qualifying session that was curtailed by a thunderstorm.
Russell, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon each picked up two-place grid penalties for impeding in qualifying, dropping them to eighth, 14th and 15th respectively.
The 20th round of the 2023 F1 season, the Brazilian GP at Interlagos, gets under way at 2:00pm local time (5:00pm GMT) on Sunday 5 November.
Source: Autosport