Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the previous five race weekends.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he lost control at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to avoid just a slight brush of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn leading to the final bend on to the pit straight.
The veteran wrapped up in P19, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
