The Red Bull driver and home favorite looked overshadowed by Ferrari’s last-second threat, which peaked after two red flags in Q3 caused by Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
With defending champion Verstappen losing time in the first half of a lap on his final run, Leclerc could have grabbed the top spot when he crossed the line to move into first place.
But Verstappen pulled it out of the bag, making up ground in the final sector to score what might have been an unlikely surprise goal. He was the only driver to dip into the 1m04s.
Effectively, qualifying came down to the final 2min 30sec. after the Mercedes crashes.
Verstappen’s Q3 banker made him provisionally fastest as he exited the Red Bull Ring pit lane behind the two Ferraris.
Leclerc was first across the line to start his final push for pole, only to drop tenth in the first sector to Verstappen.
But he made up for it with the fastest overall final sector while Verstappen looked off the pace.
Leclerc therefore jumped to the top of the leaderboard with an effort of 1m05.013s.
Sainz was just behind with a 1m05.066s, finishing with three personal best sectors that seemed to be cemented for Leclerc.
But Verstappen then produced a personal best final sector that was enough to make up for damage earlier in the lap, and he lapped to 1m04.984s to take a remarkable sprint race pole by 0.19s.
Sainz will be joined on the second row of the grid by Sergio Perez as Russell’s pre-crash efforts were good enough for fifth ahead of Esteban Ocon.
Kevin Magnussen eventually overtook Haas teammate Mick Schumacher to end a tight team battle in seventh, while Fernando Alonso was ninth.
Hamilton, meanwhile, was shuffled into 10th place as a legacy of his accident, which occurred in the first half of the final 10-minute section of qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13 crashes
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
In the first of the Mercedes shunts, Hamilton showed the red flags in Q3 with 5m29s to go after shunting into the Turn 7 barrier.
The seven-time champion, who had just exited Turn 6, was slightly wider than the apex, causing the rear of his Mercedes W13 to spin out of control.
Hamilton was quick to correct it, but as the car caught up, the applied steering lock threw him off the road and across the gravel.
It crashed sideways into the wall to break the front and rear right corners.
The shunt was met with cheers from the Dutch crowd, Hamilton a credible threat on the front row after leading the times for much of Q2, reducing his time to 1m05.475s before being relegated to third behind Leclerc and Verstappen.
After the 11-minute stoppage, Russell followed Alonso out of the pits to enjoy the fresh air as he tried to improve on his fifth-fastest effort.
But despite an unimpeded run, he ran slower than his personal best in the first sector to be 0.42 seconds off Verstappen’s benchmark before the second sector went green.
Then, not unlike his teammate, Russell lost the rear in the final corner as it broke hard to throw Russell onto the outside tire wall, eventually crushing his rear wing.
Russell remains under investigation for trespassing at Turn 10 as he crossed the track under the red flag to return to the Mercedes garage.
George Russell, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Perez could also stir up further controversy. The Monaco GP winner had one chance to climb into Q3 after various violations of track restrictions saw his lap times wiped out.
He then progressed into the final part of qualifying in his final attempt, finishing Q2 in sixth, only to be flagged for crossing the white lines on the left-right transition through the open chicane at Turn 7-8 after the session ended and positions 11 -15 solved.
Norris was the main victim of Q2 after finishing the first part of qualifying in eighth place, although he went out of the way at Turn 3 to leave team-mate Ricciardo in the shade.
But the driver, who caused the first of two red flags in FP1 after reporting smoke under his seat, then finished last in Q2, with the seething Briton “scared to hit the brakes”.
The McLaren driver started the 15-minute dice with an oversteer at Turn 3 before suffering a massive understeer at Turn 4 to cut the gravel and erase his lap time.
On his next attempt, he went quite deep into Turn 1 and had to abort the turn.
This left him last and out of time as he then messed up three of the seven designated corners, although the FIA recognizes 10 corners.
He locked up at Turn 3 and Turn 4 before again tagging the cat litter on the exit of Turn 6. Norris had one possible last attempt but retired from the pits to finish the session 15th.
Ahead, thanks to a 1m06.160s set, Pierre Gasly was the first driver to miss Q3.
He lapped 0.11 seconds slower than Schumacher to set the 11th fastest time ahead of the fast improved Williams FW44 of Alex Albon and the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas.
Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-22
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Yuki Tsunoda qualified 14th after botching his last attempt by slipping at Turn 1 – which was met with anger on the team radio from the AlphaTauri rider.
Ricciardo’s difficult season and uninspiring form from Silverstone continued as he became the first man to miss Q2 – the Australian missing the cut by 0.024s.
With team-mate Norris finishing the first 18-minute qualifying session in eighth despite going off-road at Turn 3, Ricciardo managed just 16th to lose out to Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri.
Lance Stroll, meanwhile, looked on the cusp of progressing into the second part of qualifying, running in the top 15 for much of the opening gambit, only to slip to 17th.
Stroll was a repeat offender of the circuit’s restrictions, running wide at Turn 10 – the final corner – to be denied the current and next laps, before getting lucky at Turn 1.
He was still ahead of Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo, while Nicholas Latifi took the old Williams to 19th ahead of four-time champion Sebastian Vettel.
The Aston Martin driver initially set a faster lap than his team-mate, only to be sent to the bottom of the times when he overshot the track limits at Turn 10 to have his time erased.
F1 Austrian Grand Prix: full qualifying results
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