Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has beaten his teammate at each of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the title advantage from his teammate by a single point after taking the win 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 fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the championship fight, sitting 36 points Norris, finished in P17 as his team opted for a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese spun out over the curbs on exit before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a slight brush of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619secs slower than the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
