Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped team-mate and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from his teammate by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, lying 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before rotating through the gravel trap, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the fast downhill corner leading to the final bend on to the main straight.
The veteran wrapped up in P19, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the remaining drivers, with the German's car P3, 0.619secs off the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
