Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has beaten Oscar Piastri at each of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team opted for a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, albeit lightly, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before sliding over the gravel trap, and was lucky to get away with just a slight brush of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the conclusion of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending corner leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the remaining drivers, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
