Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after winning in Mexico City recently, topped the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his team followed a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, if briefly, when he spun at the fourth corner soon after starting.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the main straight.
The veteran finished practice in 19th, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
