🔗 Share this article Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice The British driver has outscored his teammate at all of the last five grands prix. The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Norris, who seized the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s. Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session. Max Verstappen, the other racer in the points battle, trailing 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team ran a different programme. His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he lost control at the fourth corner soon after starting. Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before spinning across the gravel trap, and was lucky to get away with just a light touch of the wall. The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending corner leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight. The veteran wrapped up in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc. The McLaren pair were far ahead of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second off Piastri's pace. Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.