Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice

McLaren drivers in action — The British driver has outscored his teammate at all of the past five race weekends.

The McLaren driver edged out fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Norris, who took the points lead from his teammate by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.

Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team followed a alternative strategy.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at Turn Four early in the session.

Tsunoda slid over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was fortunate to escape with just a slight brush of the wall.

The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the practice, turning around through the fast downhill Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.

Hamilton ended the session in P19, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's best.

Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.