Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at each of the previous five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by just one point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, finished in P17 as his team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, albeit lightly, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was blessed to escape with just a light touch of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the quick descending corner approaching the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber in third, over half a second behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
