Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the points lead from his teammate by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, though minor, when he lost control at Turn Four soon after starting.
Tsunoda slid over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a light touch of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the fast downhill Mergulho corner leading to the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, over half a second slower than Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
