Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before rotating through the run-off area, and was blessed to get away with just a slight brush of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the high-speed corner approaching the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, over half a second off Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
