Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session

The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped the Australian by 0.023 seconds.

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

Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his team followed a unique setup.

Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at Turn Four during the early running.

Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the fence.

The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.

Hamilton wrapped up in 19th place, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.

Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, over half a second slower than Piastri's best.

The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.