Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the final moments of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from his teammate by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at corner four during the early running.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before spinning across the gravel trap, and was blessed to avoid just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the conclusion of the practice, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner leading to the final bend on to the main straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th place, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs off Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
