🔗 Share this article Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the past five race weekends. The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Norris, who took the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs. Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout due at 6:30 PM GMT. Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, finished in P17 as his team ran a alternative strategy. Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at the fourth corner during the early running. The Japanese spun out over the curbs on exit before rotating through the run-off area, and was fortunate to avoid just a slight brush of the fence. Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the conclusion of the session, spinning around through the high-speed corner approaching the final bend on to the pit straight. The veteran finished practice in 19th place, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc. The McLaren drivers were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's best. Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.