Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by just one point after his victory in Mexico City recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, sitting 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team ran a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was blessed to avoid just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner before the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
