Carlos Sainz finished fourth ahead of his compatriot Fernando Alonso, the Aston Martin driver only running once in the final segment due to having one set fewer of the soft tyres compared to the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers.
Verstappen had led Leclerc after the first runs in Q3 by 0.103s, but just as the action was due to reach qualifying's climax, the latter was suddenly climbing from his Ferrari and was shuffled down to third by Perez's final lap improvement.
