Verstappen produced a 1m27.472s on his first run in Q3, but did not improve on his second attempt and so that stood as the time to beat.
Leclerc had only been fourth, a massive 0.8s down after the first runs, where he had tried an additional warm-up tour to cure a handling problem he was suddenly feeling with new softs.
On his second attempt with just a single warm-up effort he cut Verstappen’s advantage to 0.319s and beat Perez, who had been unable to go quicker than his first lap in the final segment.
Behind came Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and the McLaren pair – led by Oscar Piastri throughout Q3 – and the two Mercedes drivers.
George Russell ended up ahead of Lewis Hamilton despite making a mistake in the first sector on his final Q3 lap and backing off, with Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll rounding out the top 10.
Q2 was interrupted after four minutes when Nico Hulkenberg stopped in the Turn 8 runoff just has he had begun a first flier in the middle segment where his team-mate, Kevin Magnussen had provided a tow to the other Haas.
But Hulkenberg’s VF-24 was already sounding ill, with the German pulling over early in sector one and bringing out the red flags as his car had to be recovered.
After a five-minute delay, Q2 built to is conclusion where Oliver Bearman missed the cut by 0.036s in Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, with the 18-year-old followed by Alex Albon, Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo.
Source: Autosport