Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outscored his teammate at all of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the points lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, 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 scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing with a 36-point deficit Norris, finished in 17th place as his team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at the fourth corner soon after starting.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to get away with just a slight brush of the barrier.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the conclusion of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending corner before the final corner on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in P19, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
