Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by just one point after his victory in Mexico City recently, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the session, turning around through the quick descending corner leading to the final bend on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
