Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has beaten his teammate at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the points lead from his teammate by just one point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he lost control at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before sliding over the run-off area, and was fortunate to escape with just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th place, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's car in third, 0.619secs off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
