Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outscored his teammate at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team followed a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before rotating through the gravel trap, and was fortunate to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the practice, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn before the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran ended the session in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, over half a second slower than the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
