Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice

Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The British racer, who took the title advantage from Piastri by 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.

Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.

Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at corner four early in the session.

The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before rotating through the gravel trap, and was lucky to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.

The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final corner on to the pit straight.

The veteran ended the session in 19th, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs behind the Australian's time.

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