Lando Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outscored his teammate at each of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap 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 a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before rotating through the gravel trap, and was blessed to avoid just a light touch of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the quick descending corner approaching the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran finished practice in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs off the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
