🔗 Share this article Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice The British driver has outscored his teammate at each of the past five race weekends. The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after winning in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s. Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session. The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team opted for a alternative strategy. Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner soon after starting. The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was blessed to avoid just a slight brush of the fence. Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the fast downhill Mergulho turn leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight. The seven-time champion wrapped up in P19, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver. The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, over half a second off Piastri's best. The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.