Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at all of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris edged out fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the points lead from Piastri by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in P17 as his team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, albeit lightly, when he spun at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese spun out over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran finished practice in 19th, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619 seconds behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
