Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by just one point after winning in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he lost control at corner four during the early running.
Tsunoda slid over the exit kerbs before spinning across the gravel trap, and was fortunate to get away with just a slight brush of the barrier.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the conclusion of the session, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the pit straight.
Hamilton finished practice in 19th place, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were well clear of the other competitors, with the German's car in third, over half a second off Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
