Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the final moments of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying scheduled for the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to go off, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four soon after starting.
The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to avoid just a slight brush of the barrier.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner approaching the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th place, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
