Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at each of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from his teammate by one point after winning in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to get away with just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in P19, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
