Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris edged out team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the points lead from his teammate by a single point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, if briefly, when he spun at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese spun out over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to avoid just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, turning around through the high-speed corner approaching the final corner on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, 0.619 seconds off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
