Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice

The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by just one point after his victory in Mexico City recently, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.

Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.

The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team opted for a unique setup.

His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at corner four during the early running.

The Japanese spun out over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a minor contact of the fence.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the last turn on to the start-finish straight.

Hamilton finished practice in 19th place, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, over half a second off Piastri's best.

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