🔗 Share this article

Lando Norris just pipped team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.

Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session.

The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a unique setup.

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

Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to avoid just a minor contact of the wall.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho corner leading to the final bend on to the start-finish straight.

The veteran finished practice in 19th, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.

The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's best.

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