Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the past five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the final moments of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the championship lead from Piastri by one point after taking the win in Mexico City recently, outpaced the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, trailing 36 points Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he spun at the fourth corner soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before spinning across the gravel trap, and was fortunate to get away with just a minor contact of the barrier.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the final corner on to the main straight.
The veteran finished practice in P19, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
