Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at each of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the points lead from Piastri by one point after winning in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, if briefly, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the last turn on to the pit straight.
The veteran finished practice in P19, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber third fastest, over half a second behind Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.