The defending champion preserved his soft Pirellis until the closing seven laps of the 21-tour sprint contest to mount a late charge when it looked as though Leclerc was in control.
With the aid of DRS and as his Ferrari rival battled oversteer, Verstappen dived around the outside into Tamburello and kept his car on track to take the win and pole for the full GP on Sunday.
Leclerc had nailed his launch and with the kink on the main straight placing him on the inside, he could sprint past a wheel-spinning Verstappen to seize first into Tamburello.
Verstappen next had to ensure he retained second as Lando Norris threatened around the outside into the first chicane aboard his McLaren, but the defending champion held firm.
A super-aggressive Perez demoted Fernando Alonso and then lunged past Daniel Ricciardo for a quick rise to fifth, while Ricciardo in turn briefly tagged fourth-placed Kevin Magnussen in the concertina.
But the first lap was soon interrupted by a yellow flag then safety car when 14th-starting Zhou Guanyu and Pierre Gasly, who lined up in 17th, came to blows.
Nicholas Latifi, Williams FW44, Alex Albon, Williams FW44, chase the pack at the start
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
At the Piratella left-hander, the front right of Gasly’s AlphaTauri tagged the rear-left wheel on the Alfa Romeo, which sent it spinning across the track into the inside wall.
Zhou’s car suffered terminal suspension damage, while Gasly persevered with a broken wheel rim back to the pits and swapped for another set of softs to resume behind Alexander Albon in 18th.
When the safety car peeled in, Leclerc escaped without a major threat from Verstappen as the points leader swiftly established a lead a touch over 1s to remain out of DRS range.
Leclerc settled a little over the 1s threshold for three tours and then on lap seven, set what was at the time the fastest lap of the race to stretch his cushion to 1.5s over the RB18.
It looked as though Verstappen might…
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