Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the past five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from his teammate by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, though minor, when he spun at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was fortunate to get away with just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
