Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from his teammate by one point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.
The Japanese spun out over the curbs on exit before rotating through the gravel trap, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton finished practice in 19th, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the other competitors, 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 the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
