Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outscored his teammate at each of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from his teammate by just one point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the points battle, trailing 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending corner approaching the final bend on to the main straight.
The veteran finished practice in 19th, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619 seconds off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
