Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has beaten his teammate at each of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from his teammate by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at Turn Four soon after starting.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a light touch of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the practice, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the last turn on to the main straight.
Hamilton finished practice in 19th place, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's car P3, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
