Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he lost control at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before sliding over the escape zone, and was blessed to avoid just a slight brush of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also lost it, at the conclusion of the session, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the final corner on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
