Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in P17 as his team ran a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to get away with just a slight brush of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending corner approaching the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th place, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's car in third, over half a second off the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.