Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by one point after winning in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at the fourth corner during the early running.
The Japanese 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 fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
