Lando Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris edged out fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the final moments of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the title advantage from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the points battle, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before rotating through the gravel trap, and was fortunate to avoid just a slight brush of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho turn approaching the final corner on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th place, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber third fastest, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
