Lando Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outscored his teammate at each of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at the fourth corner during the early running.
Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was fortunate to get away with just a slight brush of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the practice, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619secs behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
