Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the championship fight, sitting with a 36-point deficit Norris, finished in P17 as his team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to avoid just a light touch of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the last turn on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber third fastest, over half a second off the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.