Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the title advantage from his teammate by one point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the points battle, sitting with a 36-point deficit Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at the fourth corner during the early running.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to get away with just a minor contact of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the other competitors, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
