Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris edged out fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by one point after winning in Mexico City two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he lost control at Turn Four soon after starting.
The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also lost it, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner before the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
