Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the points lead from his teammate by just one point after winning in Mexico City recently, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team followed a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda slid over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's car in third, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
