Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outscored his teammate at each of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, sitting with a 36-point deficit Norris, ended up in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at the fourth corner during the early running.
Tsunoda lost control over the exit kerbs before sliding over the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a slight brush of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the main straight.
The veteran ended the session in 19th place, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619secs behind the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
