🔗 Share this article Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the past five race weekends. The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Norris, who took the championship lead from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s. Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session. Max Verstappen, the other racer in the championship fight, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a different programme. His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, albeit lightly, when he rotated at Turn Four soon after starting. Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before sliding over the gravel trap, and was lucky to get away with just a minor contact of the barrier. Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner before the final corner on to the start-finish straight. The seven-time champion finished practice in P19, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc. Norris and Piastri were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's car P3, over half a second behind Piastri's best. The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.