🔗 Share this article Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session The British driver has outscored his teammate at all of the past five race weekends. The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from his teammate by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, outpaced the Australian by 0.023 seconds. Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before the sprint shootout due at 6:30 PM GMT. Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, sitting with a 36-point deficit Norris, finished in P17 as his team ran a different programme. Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at Turn Four early in the session. Tsunoda slid over the track edges before spinning across the gravel trap, and was lucky to avoid just a light touch of the barrier. Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, turning around through the fast downhill Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the start-finish straight. The seven-time champion finished practice in P19, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver. Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's car in third, over half a second slower than Piastri's pace. The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.