Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outscored his teammate at all of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris edged out team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from Piastri by one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his team followed a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he lost control at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was blessed to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the fast downhill Mergulho corner before the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th place, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second off Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
