Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the final moments of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at corner four during the early running.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was fortunate to get away with just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th place, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
