Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has beaten his teammate at all of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the championship lead from his teammate by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, topped the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to go off, if briefly, when he spun at the fourth corner during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to avoid just a minor contact of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the practice, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in P19, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
