Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has beaten his teammate at all of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by one point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team ran a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at corner four soon after starting.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a slight brush of the barrier.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also lost it, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's car P3, over half a second off Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
