Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at each of the past five race weekends.
Lando Norris edged out fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, sitting 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.
The Japanese spun out over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to avoid just a light touch of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the fast downhill corner approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
