Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session

The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Norris, who took the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session.

The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a different programme.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at corner four during the early running.

Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before rotating through the gravel trap, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the barrier.

The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, turning around through the fast downhill corner leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.

The veteran finished practice in P19, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.

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