Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing 36 points Norris, ended up in P17 as his team opted for a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda slid over the track edges before rotating through the gravel trap, and was fortunate to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
