π Share this article Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the past five grands prix. Lando Norris just pipped team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The British racer, who seized the points lead from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs. Before then, Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session. Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup. Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at the fourth corner early in the session. The Japanese lost control over the track edges before rotating through the gravel trap, and was blessed to avoid just a minor contact of the wall. The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton 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 finished practice in 19th, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc. The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's pace. The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.