Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outscored his teammate at each of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver 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 his teammate by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, sitting 36 points Norris, finished in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at the fourth corner during the early running.
The Japanese spun out over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to avoid just a slight brush of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the high-speed corner before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, over half a second off the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
