Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the title advantage from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, lying 36 points Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at corner four during the early running.
Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before sliding over the escape zone, and was lucky to get away with just a slight brush of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also lost it, at the final moments of the session, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn leading to the last turn on to the main straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th place, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was in fourth, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
