Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the points battle, lying 36 points Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team ran a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a light touch of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the conclusion of the practice, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn before the final bend on to the pit straight.
Hamilton finished practice in 19th place, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619secs slower than the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
