Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has beaten his teammate at all of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout due at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the exit kerbs before spinning across the escape zone, and was fortunate to get away with just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, turning around through the fast downhill Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, 0.619secs slower than the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
