Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at each of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after winning in Mexico City 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 due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, though minor, when he lost control at Turn Four early in the session.
Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was lucky to avoid just a light touch of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, over half a second behind Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
