Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outscored his teammate at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a slight brush of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, spinning around through the fast downhill corner before the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran finished practice in 19th place, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.