Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by just one point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, albeit lightly, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before sliding over the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also lost it, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in P19, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
