Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session

Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.

The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, trailing 36 points Norris, was classified in 17th position as his team ran a unique setup.

His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at Turn Four soon after starting.

Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before rotating through the run-off area, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the barrier.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight.

The veteran ended the session in P19, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, over half a second slower than Piastri's pace.

Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.