Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the past five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at corner four during the early running.
The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the escape zone, and was blessed to avoid just a slight brush of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also lost it, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final corner on to the main straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's car in third, over half a second behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
