Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by just one point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, topped the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout due at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, trailing 36 points behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a slight brush of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th place, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
