Lando Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has beaten his teammate at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the championship lead from his teammate by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing with a 36-point deficit Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to get away with just a light touch of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the main straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's car P3, over half a second off Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.