Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at each of the past five race weekends.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, albeit lightly, when he lost control at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a slight brush of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in P19, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, over half a second behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
