There is a 44-point difference between the drivers with four Grand Prix races and one sprint remaining in the season.
Lando Norris' victory came after a team order from McLaren, and some irritation arose between Norris and second-placed teammate Oscar Piastri.
Piastri led the 24-lap race for a long time before finally letting Norris through.
I'm not sure what I'm doing here, mate. I thought we had talked about this, said Norris over the team's communication system before he was let through to victory.
Afterwards, Norris said:
I'm not proud of this, but we worked well as a team together and I thank Oscar. He deserved to win, but we did what we had to do.
Charles Leclerc, who has a small title chance, was promoted to third place following the decision regarding Verstappen. The World Championship leader went off on the outside of leading Piastri when the race was flagged off for safety reasons and was deemed to have tried to take advantage of the situation.
After the sprint race, qualifying was to be held for Sunday's GP race, but heavy rain over the track outside São Paulo eventually led to its cancellation. The plan is to hold qualifying on Sunday morning, before the main event.
