The 18-year-old, preparing for only his sixth Grand Prix weekend, lapped with a best time of one minute 26.482 seconds to pip McLaren's championship leader Oscar Piastri by 0.045 seconds.
Australian Oscar Piastri won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday to take the lead in the Formula One world championship
Verstappen is third overall in the standings, 61 points behind Piastri who leads Norris by 15, and chasing his third win of the campaign to make up for retirement in Austria last weekend.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri seized the first proper pole position of his Formula One career at the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday with the fastest lap yet around the Shanghai International Circuit.
It was the first time in seven races that Ferrari had failed to get at least one of their cars into the top 10.
Lando Norris lucked in to win a rain-hit and crash-strewn Miami Grand Prix sprint race in a McLaren one-two on Saturday.
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.
Verstappen crossed the line in his Red Bull for his 64th Grand Prix victory to a huge ovation from the 115,000 crowd some 1.4 seconds ahead of McLaren's championship leader Lando Norris in second place.
Bernie Ecclestone says his money is still on Red Bull's Max Verstappen to win the Formula One championship
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.
'Tomorrow's going to be a challenge, I've never driven this car in the rain.'
The racing scenes in Brad Pitt's new F1 movie are impressively authentic but the filmmakers have also made much of how the sport's past is woven into the plot -- with a hefty slice of Hollywood artistic licence.
Max Verstappen was surprised by his Red Bull car's performance as the F1 defending champion took third place in qualifying for the season-opening race.
Both franchises are owned by Sanjiv Goenka.
Lewis Hamilton celebrated his first Formula One win for Ferrari after leading a Chinese Grand Prix sprint from start to finish in only his second race for the Italian team on Saturday.
World champion Max Verstappen took pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday, stunning the McLarens with a late flying lap.
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.
Lewis Hamilton smashed the Shanghai circuit lap record on his way to a stunning first sprint race pole for Ferrari in China on Friday.
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris topped the times for McLaren as four red flags, two caused by trackside grass fires, wreaked havoc with the second practice session for the Japanese Grand Prix on Friday.
The seven-time world champion, the sport's most successful driver with 105 grand prix victories and 202 podiums, said at an event for Ferrari partner Puma on Tuesday night that the excitement was building.
But there were no bold statements on race day as he struggled to take a point and his team mate Charles Leclerc laboured to an eighth-place finish.
'This is the most exciting period of my life, so I'm really just enjoying it and I'm so excited to get in the car tomorrow.'
Carlos Sainz completed a double race distance for previously struggling Williams and pushed his Ferrari successor Lewis Hamilton off the top of the testing
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.
Born in Paris to Algerian scientist parents and competing with a French licence, the Racing Bulls driver stands out at the top level of the sport for his North African heritage as well as results.
Lewis Hamilton has expressed his total confidence in Ferrari after the Italian Formula One team's double disqualification in China.
Hamilton, who finished fourth on Sunday and joins Ferrari next year, has always raced with a Mercedes engine since his debut at McLaren in 2007.
Leclerc and teammate Lewis Hamilton were eighth and 10th in the season-opener in Australia and finished fifth and sixth in China two weeks ago before both cars were disqualified for technical infringements.
Seven-times World champion Lewis Hamilton appeared in Ferrari red for the first time outside of Italy as Formula One put on an unprecedented and spectacular 10-team season launch in front of 15,000 fans on Tuesday.
Lewis Hamilton said he was 'really enjoying' driving his Ferrari after ending the second morning of Formula One's pre-season testing in Bahrain
In the constructors' standings, Ferrari closed the gap to McLaren to 24 points.
Born on March 30, 1948, Jordan competed in motor racing's junior series before becoming a driver manager and then a team owner.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame joined Max Verstappen on stage when the Red Bull driver collected the F1 champion's trophy for the fourth year in a row.
Charles Leclerc won the US Grand Prix in a Ferrari one-two with Carlos Sainz on Sunday as Formula One championship leader Max Verstappen dealt Lando Norris a significant setback in their title battle.
Hamilton told reporters at pre-season testing in Bahrain that he had yet to broach the subject of 'Hammer Time' with race engineer Adami.
The 40-year-old, who won six of his world championships at Mercedes, also unveiled a new bright yellow helmet, as he continues his first official week at Ferrari which began at the team's headquarters on Monday.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen dealt Lando Norris a shattering blow in their Formula One title battle by winning a wet and chaotic Sao Paulo Grand Prix from 17th on the grid.
The track time will also help him earn enough points to apply for a Super Licence, which is needed to compete in Formula 1.
The final phase of qualifying was halted, with only Piastri and Haas' Nico Hulkenberg having set times, when Sainz slammed backwards into the barriers at the final corner as he prepared to start his flying lap.
McLaren's Lando Norris dominated the Singapore Grand Prix from start to finish on Sunday to take another chunk out of Max Verstappen's Formula One championship lead.
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