🔗 Share this article Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the last five race weekends. Lando Norris just pipped team-mate and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Norris, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds. Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT. Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind Norris, finished in P17 as his team ran a unique setup. Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at corner four soon after starting. Tsunoda slid over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the wall. Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn approaching the final corner on to the main straight. Hamilton wrapped up in P19, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver. The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, 0.619secs behind Piastri's pace. Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.