Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the past five race weekends.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by one point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his team ran a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner during the early running.
Tsunoda slid over the exit kerbs before rotating through the run-off area, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn leading to the final bend on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th place, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second slower than the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
