Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has beaten his teammate at all of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris edged out team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the title advantage from his teammate by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting 36 points Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four soon after starting.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a slight brush of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the fast downhill Mergulho corner before the final bend on to the pit straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's car P3, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
