Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team opted for a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at the fourth corner during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a light touch of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the main straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the other competitors, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
