Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outscored his teammate at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris edged out team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting with a 36-point deficit Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at the fourth corner during the early running.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho turn approaching the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th place, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
