Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the title advantage from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, sitting 36 points behind behind 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 crash, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner during the early running.
Tsunoda slid over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was fortunate to avoid just a slight brush of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran finished practice in 19th, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second off Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.