Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, topped the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, trailing 36 points Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team opted for a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a minor contact of the barrier.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho turn before the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs behind Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
