Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session

The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The British racer, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.

The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy.

His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, albeit lightly, when he lost control at Turn Four soon after starting.

The Japanese spun out over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was lucky to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.

The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the quick descending corner approaching the final corner on to the main straight.

Hamilton ended the session in 19th place, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's car in third, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.

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