Nine of the 20 drivers are carrying penalties for Sunday's race and Verstappen, who leads Leclerc by a massive 109 points in the championship after 15 of 22 races, is one of them with a drop of five places on the starting grid.
Leclerc was the fastest driver on the timesheets without a penalty, lapping 0.347 slower than Verstappen's best effort of one minute 21.252 seconds.
Red Bull's Sergio Perez (32) and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz (28), third and fourth respectively, both have penalties - the latter enough to drop him to the back of the grid, and the Mexican in line for a 10-place demotion from wherever he qualifies.
Mercedes' seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton (37) is also due to go to the back of the grid, while Alpine's Esteban Ocon (25) has a five-place penalty.
Hamilton was 10th fastest and just slower than Ocon, whose teammate Fernando Alonso (41) was fifth and looking good without a penalty, while McLaren's Lando Norris (22) was sixth.
Others with penalties are Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas (33), Haas pair Kevin Magnussen (29) and Mick Schumacher (23) - all 15 places - and AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda (22) who is headed for the back of the grid.
Dutch driver Nyck de Vries (27) made his competitive F1 debut as a stand-in at Williams after Alex Albon was ruled out by appendicitis.
De Vries was 14th on the timing screens, with teammate Nicholas Latifi (27) 13th.
