Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by one point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, sitting 36 points Norris, ended up in P17 as his team followed a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner soon after starting.
The Japanese spun out over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner leading to the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th place, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, over half a second slower than Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
