Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has beaten his teammate at each of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team followed a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, albeit lightly, when he lost control at the fourth corner during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the fast downhill corner approaching the final corner on to the main straight.
The veteran ended the session in 19th place, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619 seconds behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
