Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice

The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The British racer, who took the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.

Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT.

The Red Bull star, the other racer in the championship fight, trailing 36 points Norris, ended up in 17th position as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.

His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four early in the session.

Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the fence.

The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the quick descending corner approaching the last turn on to the start-finish straight.

The veteran wrapped up in 19th, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

Norris and Piastri were well clear of the other competitors, with the German's car in third, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's best.

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