Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at each of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by one point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, topped the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, albeit lightly, when he lost control at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese spun out over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to escape with just a minor contact of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the session, turning around through the high-speed corner leading to the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran finished practice in 19th place, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
