Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after his victory in Mexico City recently, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team followed a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he lost control at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the escape zone, and was fortunate to get away with just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the quick descending corner leading to the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th place, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs off Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.