Carlos Sainz Jr. qualified third, while Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished fifth and ninth.
After the first runs in the third quarter, it was Sainz who led by 0.044 seconds ahead of Leclerc, while Verstappen, who led in the second quarter, was 0.056 seconds behind and complained that his first lap in the last segment of the session was unsuccessful. too slow, costing him tire temperatures.
On the last flights, Leclerc led the trio and recorded the best time in the middle sector of the course on the way to 1 minute 30.558 seconds.
Sainz was only able to post a personal best time in the last sector, which meant he was 0.129 seconds behind his teammate, with Verstappen last to cross the finish line.
He was the fastest in the first sector, but lost time as the lap dragged on and ultimately missed the opportunity to repeat his pole position from the 2021 curtain rise in the same spot.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18
Photo: Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
Sergio Pérez made it Red Bull 2-4 and Hamilton led the Mercedes team ahead of his former teammate Valtteri Bottas, who finished sixth in this first Alfa Romeo appearance.
Kevin Magnussen got off to a great start in F1 with a seventh-place finish for Haas, despite having to deal with a power steering problem late in the second quarter when the Dane stalled in turn one after crossing the finish line in his only run at the end of Q3.
Fernando Alonso finished eighth in the Alpine, Russell in ninth, losing some time in the first turn in his last run of the third quarter, and Pierre Gasly finished 10th in AlphaTauri.
His latest improvement at the end of the second quarter knocked out Esteban Ocon on another Alpine and Mick Schumacher recorded his best ever F1 qualifying finish in 12th for Team Haas.
Lando Norris dropped out of the McLaren squad in 13th place, saying that back in the pits it was “the best thing we could have done today.”
Alex Albon made it through the first quarter in his first qualifying for Williams and then adopted the opposite strategy in the second quarter, heading out early to try the track alone and then doing the same for his last run as the others completed final preparations for the end of the season. middle segment.
Carlos Sainz Jr, Ferrari F1-75
Photo: Steven Tee/Motorsport Images
Albon’s efforts would have allowed him to finish 15th, but a few minutes later Alfa’s Zhou Guangyu lost his best time – 1m 32.387s to Albon’s 1m 32.664s – due to a run-out in turn 5, a fast left kink that is preceded by dipping right and left corners that descend to a hairpin in the middle sector of the Sakhir track.
In the first quarter, Yuki Tsunoda’s personal best on the last lap kept AlphaTauri’s second rider from rising above 16th, with Sebastian Vettel’s temporary replacement Nico Hulkenberg falling behind in 17th.
Hulkenberg’s latest effort put him ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, who missed all pre-season testing in Bahrain after contracting COVID-19, and Lance Stroll in another Aston Martin.
Nicholas Latifi was the only knocked-out rider not to set a personal best last lap time in the opening segment, meaning he was left last in peak time.
Results: