Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by a single point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team opted for a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to go off, though minor, when he lost control at the fourth corner soon after starting.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to avoid just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed corner before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran wrapped up in P19, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's car in third, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
