Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at all of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the championship lead from his teammate by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four during the early running.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before sliding over the gravel trap, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the high-speed corner leading to the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran finished practice in 19th place, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
