Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda was seventh, while Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Hamilton completed the top 10.
The race-simulation runs later in the session provided a complex picture, as the leading drivers chose different tyre compounds.
On the medium tyre, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, 11th fastest on the list of headline lap times, appeared to have a slight edge over Norris and Leclerc.
Verstappen was slightly quicker than Hamilton, both using the soft tyre, while Piastri did his long run on the hard tyre.
Norris said: “We have shown a bit more pace than some of the others but I certainly think they are going to catch up. Max is not far behind and [Red Bull] normally improve a lot into Saturday.
“I expect a good day tomorrow, and I’m sure we’ll improve on some things, but it’s not as easy as maybe it looked today. It’s still going to be tight tomorrow. It always is.”
Championship leader Piastri agreed with Norris that Verstappen is the driver most likely to challenge the McLarens. “He’ll definitely be a threat this weekend,” said the Australian.
“The car is feeling good, I think the pace is quite good, so positive day.”
Russell, who won the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks ago, said his time that topped first practice was “definitely a surprise” to Mercedes.
“Second practice, we definitely didn’t have the pace like we did this morning, in the qualifying runs, and the race pace was a step worse, so we need to analyse why that was,” he added.
