Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from Piastri by one point after winning in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.