Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver 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 title advantage from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the championship fight, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four soon after starting.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the barrier.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn before the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's car P3, 0.619secs off Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
