Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at Turn Four during the early running.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before rotating through the gravel trap, and was fortunate to avoid just a slight brush of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending corner approaching the final corner on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.