Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from his teammate by just one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in realistic title contention, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner soon after starting.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending corner leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in P19, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
