Verstappen puts Red Bull on pole at Silverstone
Crowd favourite Lando Norris, Piastri's teammate and closest title rival, qualified third.
Mercedes' George Russell took fourth place on the grid and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, last year's race winner for a record ninth time, will start fifth in his first home grand prix in the Italian team's red overalls.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc lines up sixth, with the top five split by barely two tenths of a second on an overcast and windy afternoon.
'It was tricky out there with the wind ... it was all shifting around a bit,' said Verstappen after his fourth pole in 12 races but first since Miami in May. 'These cars are extremely sensitive to it.
'That final lap was good enough. This is a proper track, in qualifying you have to go flat out. With these corners you have to be really committed and that's really enjoyable.'
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.
Verstappen was also quickest in the first phase of qualifying, ahead of Piastri, but Hamilton went top in the second and looked like he could end a wait for pole dating back to Hungary 2023.
Verstappen pole
It was not to be, however, with Piastri taking provisional pole after the first flying laps before Verstappen put in a best of 1:24.892 seconds — 0.103 quicker.
Norris was only 0.015 slower than Piastri.
'The first lap was mega, to be honest,' said the Australian. 'I was trying to think how I could go quicker and I didn't. The last lap was a little bit messy but it's been tight all weekend.'
Norris said it had been an afternoon of small margins.
'I think it's going to be fun tomorrow. I think it's going to be a good battle between the three of us — or probably more with Lewis, Charles and George,' he added.
Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli qualified seventh but has a three- place grid penalty carried over from Austria as punishment for shunting Verstappen out on the opening lap.
That should have raised Oliver Bearman's Haas up to seventh but the Briton has a 10-place penalty for failing to respect red flags in final practice.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso will start seventh with Alpine's Pierre Gasly moving up to eighth and Carlos Sainz ninth for Williams with Antonelli 10th.
Franco Colapinto triggered red flags in the first phase when he careered off track and into the gravel in a cloud of tyre smoke and dust.
'I lost the rears. Probably touched a bump or something,' said the Argentine.
He got going and extricated himself but had to stop before making it back to the pits. The session was halted for minor barrier repairs, to clear debris and recover the stricken Alpine.
Both the Saubers, Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson and Aston Martin's Lance Stroll also failed to progress to phase two.
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