Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has outscored his teammate at each of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at the fourth corner soon after starting.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner approaching the final corner on to the main straight.
Hamilton ended the session in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.