The Monaco Grand Prix had a chaotic end to it, with Charles Leclerc taking pole position for his home race.
The driver of the car ended 0.225 seconds ahead of his teammate.
Leclerc was on a quicker lap at the end of the session, but Sainz collected Perez at Portier and the session was stopped.
Leclerc's title rival, Max Verstappen, was off the pace in fourth.
Fernando Alonso crashed his Alpine at the end of the session, at Mirabeau, and fell to seventh behind Lando Norris and George Russell, both of whom the veteran Spaniard had headed after the first runs.
The red flag prevented Hamilton from getting a lap on new tires in the final part of the race, and he ended up eighth.
At the start of the weekend, Leclerc was the favorite to take pole, and he looked like he was going to do one of the all-time great Monaco qualifying laps before the maelstrom at the end of the session.
After his first lap, he was already a quarter of a second clear of the field and his second one was going to move him into another dimension, but he was unable to complete it.
It is very special. I am very happy. The weekend has been very smooth. I knew the pace was in the car and I just had to do the job.
The last lap before the red flag was really good. It was at the limit. It was a good lap but the rear was loose. I believe I was up by 0.4 seconds before the red flag came. Carlos is with me on the front row.
The way the session ended was similar to last season.
Leclerc secured the pole position at the exit of the Swimming Pool section when he crashed.
It ruined his weekend. The car broke down as he tried to make his way to the grid before the start of the race, but he didn't notice that the drive shaft was cracked.
Leclerc has always been fast at Monaco, but has never finished a race there. He badly needs to make up for that, having seen his 46-point lead turn into a six-point deficit to Verstappen in the last three races.
Perez had looked the man most likely to threaten Leclerc before the final part of qualification but his first lap in the last session did not go as well as he had hoped and Sainz snuck ahead.
Perez crashed into the barriers after pushing too hard at Portier, who was the right-handed one, and was collected by Sainz, who was on his own final lap and trying to improve behind him.
Verstappen was badly affected by Perez's error, as Leclerc was improving further ahead around the lap.
He put in his best first sector. It was not a match for Leclerc, but the world champion looked as if he might have a chance to jump onto the front row, only to be stopped by the session being stopped.
The red flag was good for both Russell and Norris. Just before it, Russell jumped up to sixth, just 0.263 seconds behind his fellow Brit, after producing a stupendous lap to go fifth, just 0.248 seconds slower than Verstappen.
Alonso was impressive in going fifth on his first run.
All of them lost out because they didn't run new tyres until the final run.
Even if the track is dry for the race, it will be different because of the rain and storms that will fall later in the afternoon.
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