Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at all of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, topped the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, though minor, when he spun at corner four during the early running.
The Japanese spun out over the track edges before sliding over the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a slight brush of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending corner before the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
