Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in Mexico City recently, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before sliding over the gravel trap, and was fortunate to avoid just a light touch of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho turn leading to the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in P19, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.