Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the final moments of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, outpaced the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, lying 36 points Norris, was classified in P17 as his team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four during the early running.
The Japanese spun out over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was fortunate to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, turning around through the quick descending corner before the final corner on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the other competitors, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619secs behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
