Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner during the early running.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a slight brush of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho turn leading to the last turn on to the main straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
