Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris edged out team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team followed a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at Turn Four soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before rotating through the run-off area, and was fortunate to get away with just a slight brush of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the high-speed corner leading to the final bend on to the main straight.
The veteran finished practice in 19th place, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
