Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has beaten his teammate at each of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the championship lead from his teammate by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team ran a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at Turn Four early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the practice, turning around through the fast downhill corner before the final corner on to the pit straight.
The veteran finished practice in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber third fastest, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.