Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outscored his teammate at each of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the title advantage from his teammate by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to go off, though minor, when he spun at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before rotating through the gravel trap, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the final corner on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th place, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs behind Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
