Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, though minor, when he spun at corner four soon after starting.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before sliding over the gravel trap, and was lucky to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th place, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, over half a second off Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
