Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the past five race weekends.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before the sprint shootout due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, sitting 36 points Norris, finished in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he spun at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese spun out over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner before the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in P19, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's car in third, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
