Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at corner four soon after starting.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the fast downhill Mergulho corner before the final bend on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
