Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has beaten Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team followed a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at corner four during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was fortunate to avoid just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn leading to the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th place, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619secs behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
