Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped 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 due at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the session, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds behind the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
