Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at all of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the title advantage from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the championship fight, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at corner four during the early running.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before sliding over the run-off area, and was lucky to avoid just a light touch of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the practice, turning around through the fast downhill Mergulho turn approaching the last turn on to the pit straight.
Hamilton finished practice in 19th, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
