Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the past five race weekends.
Lando Norris edged out fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his team opted for a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, if briefly, when he spun at corner four soon after starting.
The Japanese spun out over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to avoid just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the quick descending corner leading to the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton ended the session in P19, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.