Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from his teammate by a single point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team ran a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at Turn Four early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the barrier.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the fast downhill corner approaching the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran ended the session in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, over half a second behind Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
