🔗 Share this article Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the last five grands prix. The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Norris, who took the points lead from his teammate by just one point after winning in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s. Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT. Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team followed a different programme. Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he spun at the fourth corner early in the session. Tsunoda slid over the track edges before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a minor contact of the wall. Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the conclusion of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn leading to the last turn on to the start-finish straight. The seven-time champion wrapped up in P19, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc. Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's pace. The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.