Lando Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at Turn Four soon after starting.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a slight brush of the barrier.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending corner before the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran finished practice in 19th, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's car in third, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
