Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session

The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris, who took the title advantage from Piastri by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.

The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a unique setup.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner soon after starting.

Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before rotating through the gravel trap, and was fortunate to get away with just a slight brush of the wall.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn leading to the last turn on to the main straight.

The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs behind Piastri's best.

Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.