Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session

McLaren drivers in action

Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.

Lando Norris edged out team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from his teammate by one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.

The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.

His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.

Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the escape zone, and was fortunate to get away with just a minor contact of the barrier.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho turn leading to the final bend on to the start-finish straight.

The seven-time champion wrapped up in P19, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.

Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's car P3, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.

Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.

Daniel Rogers
Daniel Rogers

A passionate gamer and tech writer with over a decade of experience covering the gaming industry and esports events worldwide.