Ferrari's underwhelming pace was a surprise to their rivals and to Hamilton, whose quickest lap in the final qualifying session (Q3) was nearly nine-tenths of a second slower than Norris's.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri ended a long win drought with a pole-to-flag victory in the Qatar Grand Prix sprint race in Doha.
World champion Max Verstappen took pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday, stunning the McLarens with a late flying lap.
Verstappen collided with Leclerc and twice with Mercedes' George Russell after the safety car restart.
With eight points on offer to the winner of Saturday's 100km race, he and Norris -- 22 points behind Piastri -- both have a good chance to reduce the gap to the Australian who was three tenths slower than his teammate.
McLaren, who secured the constructors' championship in October for the second year in a row, won both titles in the same season for the first time since 1998.
World champion Max Verstappen put Red Bull on pole position for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in dramatic style on Saturday.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri celebrated pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix, his 50th Formula One race, while dejected championship-leading teammate Lando Norris qualified sixth and said he had been "clueless on track".
McLaren's Oscar Piastri celebrated his 50th Formula One race with a pole-to-flag win in Bahrain on Sunday that sent him second overall.
The Briton goes into Sunday's title decider in Abu Dhabi 12 points clear of Red Bull's Max Verstappen with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri a further four behind.
Lando Norris lucked in to win a rain-hit and crash-strewn Miami Grand Prix sprint race in a McLaren one-two on Saturday.
Lando Norris won the Austrian Grand Prix and revived his Formula One title bid after fending off championship-leading McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri under race-long pressure on Sunday.
Seven-times World champion Lewis Hamilton failed to stand on the podium all year for the first time in his career.
George Russell wins F1's Singapore GP as McLaren secures constructors' title
Mocked, misjudged, written off, Lando Norris's carves own road to F1 Glory
Lewis Hamilton will launch his bid to win the drivers' championship at a third F1 team when he makes his much-anticipated debut for Ferrari in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Aston Martin's Lance Stroll collected a one-place grid drop for Sunday's race after stewards ruled the Canadian was to blame for the collision with Leclerc running into him at the hairpin.
Lando Norris stretched his Formula One championship lead to nine points after winning Saturday's Sao Paulo sprint while McLaren teammate and title rival Oscar Piastri crashed in a big blow to the Australian's bid to get back on top.
Oscar Piastri is looking forward to watching Australia beat England at cricket after a F1 season of highs and lows ended in disappointment on Sunday.
F1 leader Oscar Piastri seized pole position from teammate and title rival Lando Norris by a hefty margin as dominant McLaren locked out the front row in Spanish Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen suffered his first retirement of the Formula One season on Sunday after a collision with Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli on the opening lap of Red Bull's home Austrian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton smashed the Shanghai circuit lap record on his way to a stunning first sprint race pole for Ferrari in China on Friday.
Verstappen's father says Red Bull will 'explode' if Horner stays
Carlos Sainz completed a double race distance for previously struggling Williams and pushed his Ferrari successor Lewis Hamilton off the top of the testing
The win from fourth on the grid was Australian Oscar Piastri's third in a row, after Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and fourth of the season. McLaren have so far been beaten only once.
McLaren's Lando Norris swept to victory in a wet and wild Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, holding off defending champion Max Verstappen in a white-knuckle finish to a Formula One season-opener littered with crashes and safety cars.
Drivers returned to the pits, under a darkening sky, with engineers using torches in the garages before back-up generators came on and the session resumed about an hour later.
A fired-up Max Verstappen ended his barren run as he outclassed the McLarens to register a dominant victory at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza on Sunday.
Red Bull suffered a second trophy malfunction in a week on Sunday after the one handed to the winning constructor at the Belgian Grand Prix was broken after a celebratory team photograph.
Lewis Hamilton has dismissed suggestions of friction within Ferrari after team chairman John Elkann's recent comments that he and teammate Charles Leclerc should "focus on driving and talk less".
Red Bull's triple World champion Max Verstappen claimed pole position on Saturday for the Miami Grand Prix, to start from the front of the grid for the sixth straight race this season.
Mexican team mate Sergio Perez qualified second fastest in a front row lockout for Red Bull, 15 years after the team took their first win at the Shanghai International Circuit with Sebastian Vettel.
A widely-circulated anonymous email put fresh focus on recent allegations of misconduct toward a female colleague.
As impressive as those results have been, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner took the opportunity after the race to issue a scary warning that his team is capable of winning every grand prix this season.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen sang "Viva Las Vegas" after racing to a record-extending 18th victory of the season and joining Sebastian Vettel in third place on Formula One's all-time winners' list.
Red Bull's triple Formula One world champion Max Verstappen won a US Grand Prix sprint race from pole position on Saturday after an early challenge from Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton.
Max Verstappen won the first sprint race of the Formula One season at the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday.
There was no official confirmation from the team or their Austrian owners.
The victory at Suzuka was the Dutch driver's 13th in 16 races this season and left him on the brink of a third world title.
Days after the Red Bull driver and partner Kelly Piquet welcomed daughter Lily, his first child, the four-times champion set a blistering lap of one minute 26.204 seconds around the Hard Rock Stadium.
