Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outscored his teammate at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by just one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the championship fight, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at corner four during the early running.
Tsunoda slid over the exit kerbs before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to escape with just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho corner before the final corner on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs off the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
