Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris edged out team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after winning in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before rotating through the run-off area, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the barrier.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the fast downhill corner before the final corner on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were well clear of the remaining drivers, with the German's car P3, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
