Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outscored Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his team followed a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was blessed to get away with just a slight brush of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619secs behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
