Verstappen will be looking for his 17th win of the season in Sao Paulo.
The world champion had set provisional pole in the first runs of Q3, having put in a lap of 1m 10.727s. But with the weather rapidly changing as the clock ticked down, the session was brought to an early end, meaning that there was not the opportunity for drivers to improve on their only flying lap.
“Although today was quite tough with the weather, it was great to end up on pole," said Verstappen. “In Q1 and Q2, the gaps were small in between cars and we ended up using quite a few of our tire sets. When we lined up to go out for Q3, you could see the sky was black. As we went out, the first sector was alright but the rain started coming in; the wind picked up and changed direction in the middle section which made it difficult to drive but the Team told me just to keep pushing. I have never experienced something that has had such a big influence on car balance, but ultimately it was still a great result and sets us up well for Sunday. For the Sprint race tomorrow, we will try and do the best we can as I think it will be close in the Sprint Shootout."
Charles Leclerc will join Verstappen on the front row, while Aston Martin benefitted from getting their drivers out on track early, with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso in P3 and P4 respectively.
The Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell follow in fifth and sixth, and Lando Norris – who had looked impressively fast in Q2 – had to settle for seventh.
Carlos Sainz ended the session in P8, while Sergio Perez and Oscar Piastri round out the top 10.
Nico Hulkenberg was the lead Haas in 11th, with the Alpine pair of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly following behind in 12th and 13th.
Kevin Magnussen ended the session in 14th and, despite his Williams showing good pace in Q1, Alex Albon couldn’t reach the final segment of qualifying and will start from 15th.
There was a shock in Q1 when Daniel Ricciardo failed to get out of the elimination zone, marking a dramatic contrast from his P4 qualifying result at the Mexico City Grand Prix. The Australian will start in P17, with his AlphaTauri team mate Yuki Tsunoda one place ahead in P16.
It was also a difficult session for Alfa Romeo. Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu ended up in P18 and P20 respectively, with Logan Sargeant in-between them in P19.