Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice

The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri 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 his teammate by a single 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.

Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.

The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his team ran a unique setup.

His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four soon after starting.

Tsunoda lost control over the exit kerbs before spinning across the escape zone, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the wall.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner leading to the final corner on to the main straight.

The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren pair were far ahead of the other competitors, with the German's car P3, over half a second off Piastri's pace.

Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.