Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outscored his teammate at all of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival 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 his teammate by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he lost control at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending corner approaching the last turn on to the main straight.
The veteran ended the session in 19th, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, over half a second slower than the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
