🔗 Share this article Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the previous five grands prix. The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds 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 a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs. Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT. Max Verstappen, the other racer in the points battle, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy. His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, albeit lightly, when he lost control at corner four during the early running. The Japanese lost control over the track edges before sliding over the gravel trap, and was fortunate to get away with just a slight brush of the wall. Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed corner before the last turn on to the pit straight. Hamilton ended the session in 19th place, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc. Norris and Piastri were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, over half a second slower than Piastri's best. Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.