Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the past five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team ran a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at Turn Four during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the exit kerbs before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to avoid just a light touch of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, spinning around through the fast downhill corner leading to the last turn on to the pit straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber third fastest, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
