Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the championship fight, trailing with a 36-point deficit Norris, finished in 17th place as his team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the exit kerbs before spinning across the gravel trap, and was lucky to avoid just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner before the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton finished practice in 19th place, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619secs slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
