Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at each of the past five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the championship lead from his teammate by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before sprint qualifying scheduled for the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, if briefly, when he lost control at corner four during the early running.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the gravel trap, and was lucky to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending corner before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, over half a second slower than Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
