The Spaniard built up a slim lead of 0.05 seconds over his team-mate as the Scuderia pair also dominated the lap count, combining to amass more than 80 laps of data ahead of Saturday’s race.
Verstappen, meanwhile, who sits in pole position in the sprint race, was closer to two-tenths off the title time, but looked to have shown the most impressive pace in the long run as the Alpine man overtook team-mate Sergio Perez.
With 25 minutes left on the clock, the Ferraris climbed to the top of the timing screens, running on a set of the fastest C5 soft tires available.
Leclerc crossed the line in 1m08.660s to be tentatively fastest and was not to improve from here as he dropped 0.9s over his next few laps to assess the durability of the redwall tyre.
With 18 minutes to go, Sainz set the benchmark for the session, completing the 2.68-mile lap in 1m08.610s to find five hundredths over Leclerc and improve the time.
He was just two laps ahead of Leclerc, 40 to 42, but will start the sprint from third, one place behind his team-mate, the Monegasque, overshadowed in qualifying by Verstappen late on.
The defending champion finished the session third, 0.168s behind the fastest Ferrari, while Verstappen ended practice at Red Bull’s home track with 1min 08.778s.
Verstappen set the pace during the early part of the session when there was a focus on race speed, although the teams split between the sprint race or the full Grand Prix.
The cars of Alfa Romeo, Haas and Aston Martin went first in the one-hour morning run and were joined by the McLaren of Lando Norris, who got an early pull from Leclerc across the line to set a 1m10.670s effort on medium tires to initially lead the pack.
Verstappen joined the action just after five minutes, with Red Bull appearing to emphasize the sprint race simulation by running on soft tires while Ferrari kept medium tyres.
With the advantage of the C5 compound, Verstappen’s first representative effort stopped the clock at 1m09.170s to edge Sainz by 0.3s and Leclerc, then take third.
Verstappen then reduced that to 1m09.067s to clear four tenths and, after being told to hold fifth gear between turns 6 and 7, dipped into 1m08s with a 1m08.966s effort.
That put Verstappen 0.2 seconds ahead of Sainz’s best early run as part of the race runs, with Leclerc 0.6 seconds off the final pace, even if his average was quicker than his team-mate.
Russell entered the session 11 minutes behind after floor and gearbox repairs following his Q3 shunt at the final corner, the Mercedes went out on soft tires to run third fastest as part of the race tracks.
He sat on 1m09.240s, 0.3s behind Verstappen, as he split the Ferrari pair, who then made a couple of mistakes – Leclerc ran out at Turn 3, Sainz locked up at T1.
As Perez continued to miss the battle at the front of the grid, it allowed the Alpines to move to the fore in the overall times as Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon swapped places.
In the end, two-time champion Alonso had the measure, setting a lap of 1m08.832s to find himself just 0.16s behind Ocon, with Perez eventually sixth in 1m09.179s.
The Mexican will start the sprint race from 13th after his Q3 time was wiped out for a late track restrictions breach in Q2, which prevented Pierre Gasly from making the top 10 for the sprint race.
George Russell, the only driver to use the slowest hard tire, was ranked seventh.
His Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton was ninth behind former team-mate Valtteri Bottas, the seven-time champion not appearing until just 14 minutes remained as a legacy of his heavy Q3 shunt.
Hamilton set just one quick lap on softs, recording a 1m09.350s to finish ninth ahead of Lando Norris, McLaren making up time lost after brake problems in Q2.
Lance Stroll edged out Gasly, while Sebastian Vettel was 13th fastest – his session included going over the jagged curb on the edge of the final corner to throw a piece of carbon fibre.
Zhou Guanyu was 14th fastest ahead of Mick Schumacher, Alex Albon and Daniel Ricciardo, while Kevin Magnussen, Yuki Tsunoda and Nicholas Latifi came from behind.
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