Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City recently, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he lost control at Turn Four early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the exit kerbs before rotating through the run-off area, and was blessed to get away with just a slight brush of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending corner before the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, over half a second behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
