Carlos Sainz 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, found himself 0.056 seconds behind and complained that his first lap in the last leg of the session was too long. slow, which cost him tire temperature.
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.
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, finishing seventh for Haas, despite having to deal with a power steering hydraulic problem late in the second quarter when the Dane stalled in turn one after crossing the line on his only run . 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.
Albon’s efforts would have seen him finish 15th, but a few minutes later, Alpha’s Zhou Guanyou lost his best time of 1m 32.387s to Albon’s 1m 32.664 by going out of bounds at Turn 5, a fast left kink, which is preceded by falling right and left corners, which 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 rider eliminated who did not set a personal best last lap time in the opening segment, meaning he remained last in the top spot.