Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outscored his teammate at each of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four soon after starting.
The Japanese slid over the exit kerbs before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho corner approaching the final bend on to the main straight.
The veteran finished practice in P19, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
