Lando Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has beaten his teammate at all of the past five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the title advantage from Piastri by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind Norris, finished in P17 as his team followed a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at the fourth corner soon after starting.
The Japanese spun out over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to avoid just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the very end of the practice, turning around through the quick descending corner before the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th place, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs off Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
