Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the past five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the final moments of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after winning in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
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 track edges before rotating through the run-off area, and was blessed to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also lost it, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner approaching the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in P19, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber in third, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
