Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has beaten Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate 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 grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after winning in Mexico City recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team opted for a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four soon after starting.
The Japanese spun out over the curbs on exit before spinning across the escape zone, and was fortunate to avoid just a light touch of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the other competitors, with the German's car in third, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
