Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from his teammate by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, lying 36 points Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team opted for a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before sliding over the gravel trap, and was blessed to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the main straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in P19, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the other competitors, with the German's car in third, 0.619 seconds off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
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John Robertson
John Robertson
John Robertson
John Robertson