Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the points 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.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner soon after starting.
The Japanese spun out over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the final moments of the practice, spinning around through the fast downhill Mergulho corner approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's car in third, over half a second slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
