Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at each of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the points lead from Piastri by a single point after winning in Mexico City recently, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout due at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, trailing with a 36-point deficit Norris, finished in 17th position as his team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four soon after starting.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before spinning across the escape zone, and was blessed to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
