Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the title advantage from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, lying 36 points Norris, finished in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, if briefly, when he lost control at Turn Four soon after starting.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was fortunate to escape with just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the conclusion of the session, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the main straight.
The veteran ended the session in 19th place, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
