Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by a single point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at Turn Four soon after starting.
Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to avoid just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the high-speed corner before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th place, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, over half a second behind Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
