Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City recently, outpaced the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was fortunate to escape with just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner before the last turn on to the main straight.
The veteran ended the session 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, over half a second behind the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
