Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outscored his teammate at each of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the gravel trap, and was fortunate to get away with just a slight brush of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, turning around through the high-speed corner before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, 0.619secs behind Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
