Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outscored his teammate at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, trailing 36 points Norris, finished in 17th place as his team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at corner four during the early running.
The Japanese slid over the exit kerbs before spinning across the gravel trap, and was fortunate to avoid just a slight brush of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also lost it, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn leading to the final bend on to the main straight.
The veteran finished practice in P19, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
