Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outscored his teammate at all of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his team opted for a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before sliding over the escape zone, and was fortunate to get away with just a slight brush of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the high-speed corner before the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran wrapped up in P19, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, over half a second off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
