Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at each of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, sitting 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before rotating through the gravel trap, and was lucky to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the fast downhill Mergulho corner before the last turn on to the pit straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in P19, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, over half a second behind Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
