Lando Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris edged out team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, sitting 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his team opted for a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was fortunate to avoid just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho corner before the final corner on to the main straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th place, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, over half a second slower than Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
