Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after winning in Mexico City recently, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he lost control at corner four during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner leading to the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in P19, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds behind the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
