Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the final moments of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the points lead from his teammate by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he spun at the fourth corner during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before sliding over the gravel trap, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner before the final corner on to the main straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th place, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber third fastest, over half a second off Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
