Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the points lead from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat 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 sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his team ran a alternative strategy.
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 spun out over the exit kerbs before spinning across the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final corner on to the main straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, over half a second slower than Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
