Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has beaten his teammate at all of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from Piastri by just one point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, ended up in P17 as his team ran a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at Turn Four during the early running.
The Japanese spun out over the track edges before rotating through the run-off area, and was blessed to escape with just a minor contact of the barrier.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the final moments of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran wrapped up in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
