Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris edged out fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at the fourth corner during the early running.
Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the very end of the practice, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the final corner on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619secs off Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
