Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the previous five race weekends.
Lando Norris just pipped team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from his teammate by just one point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese spun out over the curbs on exit before sliding over the gravel trap, and was blessed to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the session, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner leading to the final bend on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber third fastest, over half a second off Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
