Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in Mexico City recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing 36 points Norris, was classified in 17th position as his team ran a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before sliding over the escape zone, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the fast downhill Mergulho turn before the final bend on to the main straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619secs off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
