Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outscored Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by a single point after winning in Mexico City recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before spinning across the escape zone, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the practice, turning around through the fast downhill corner approaching the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton finished practice in 19th place, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
