Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at all of the previous five race weekends.
Lando Norris edged out team-mate and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the title advantage from his teammate by one point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, lying 36 points Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese spun out over the curbs on exit before sliding over the gravel trap, and was fortunate to avoid just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed corner leading to the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th place, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
