The Spaniard achieved a slim margin of 0.05 seconds over his teammate, as the Scuderia pair also dominated the lap count, combining to accumulate more than 80 laps of data before the race on Saturday.
For his part, Verstappen, a pioneer in the pole of speed racing, was closer to two tenths of a head start, but seemed to show the most impressive pace in the long run, as the Alpines advanced ahead of the his teammate Sergio Pérez.
It was just 25 minutes into the hour that the Ferraris climbed to the top of the timing screens as they placed on a set of the fastest C5 soft tires available.
Leclerc set the timing line in 1 min 08.660 s to position himself provisionally faster and would not improve from there as he went down 0.9 s on his next laps to assess the durability of the red wall tire .
With 18 minutes left to run, Sainz set the benchmark for the session, completing the 2.68-mile lap in 1m08.610s to find five cents on Leclerc and beat the times.
He was just two laps behind Leclerc, 40 against 42, but will start the sprint race from third place, one place behind his teammate, the Monegasque eclipsed in the standings by Verstappen at the end.
The reigning champion finished the session third, losing 0.168 s of the fastest Ferrari while Verstappen finished training on the Red Bull home track in 1 min 08,778 s.
Verstappen had set the pace during the first part of the session, when he focused on the pace of the race, although the teams were split between the goal of the sprint competition or the full grand prize.
Alfa Romeo, Haas and Aston Martin cars came out first in the one-hour morning race and were joined by Lando Norris ’McLaren, which won an early Leclerc trailer across the line to make a effort of 1 m10.670 with medium tires to initially head the herd.
Verstappen did not join the action until five minutes later, with Red Bull apparently emphasizing the simulation of the sprint race running with soft tires while Ferrari maintained medium tires.
With the advantage of the C5 compound, Verstappen’s first representative effort stopped the clock at 1m09.170s to beat Sainz by 0.3si Leclerc, who was then in third place.
Verstappen then lowered this to 1m09.067s to take four tenths ahead and after being told to keep the fifth gear between curves 6 and 7, he fell in the 1m08s with an effort of 1m08.966s .
This put Verstappen 0.2 seconds ahead of Sainz’s best starting race as part of the race, with Leclerc 0.6 seconds behind the final pace, although his time average was faster than that of the your teammate.
Russell entered the session after 11 minutes after ground repairs and in the gearbox after his Q3 derivation at the last corner, the Mercedes came out with soft tires to run the third fastest as part of the race.
He sat in a 1m09.240s, 0.3sa Verstappen drift, while splitting the Ferrari pair, which then allowed a couple of errors to fall: Leclerc ran out on turn 3, Sainz blocking in T1.
As Pérez continued to lose the fight at the top of the standings, he allowed the Alpines to score in the overall times, as Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon exchanged places.
Finally, it was the two-time champion Alonso who took the measure, circling in 1m08.832s to find a tight 0.16s over Ocon, with Perez finally sixth with a 1m09.179s.
The Mexican will start the sprint race from the 13th, after having eliminated his Q3 times for a breach of the limits of the track late in Q2 that prevented Pierre Gasly from participating in the top 10 round for the speed race pole.
George Russell, the only rider to adopt the slowest hard tire, placed seventh.
Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton was ninth behind former teammate Valtteri Bottas, the seven-time champion who didn’t come out until only 14 minutes left as a legacy of his strong Q3 derivation.
Hamilton only made a quick lap in the soft, with a 1m09.350 to finish ninth ahead of Lando Norris, with McLaren making up for lost time after brake problems in Q2.
Lance Stroll overtook Gasly, while Sebastian Vettel was 13th fastest: his session included a run over the jagged sidewalk at the edge of the last corner to remove a piece of carbon fiber.
Zhou Guanyu was 14th fastest over Mick Schumacher, Alex Albon and Daniel Ricciardo while Kevin Magnussen, Yuki Tsunoda and Nicholas Latifi climbed from behind.