Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outscored his teammate at each of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a minor contact of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn leading to the last turn on to the main straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th place, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, 0.619secs behind the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
