Norris snatches P1 from Piastri at the death in Sao Paulo GP practice

It looked for a while as though Piastri had started his weekend at Interlagos perfectly, posting a 1m09.998s to top the field as the chequered flag fell.

Norris, however, had other ideas, setting a 1m09.975s on his final lap to claim the top spot and gain an early psychological advantage heading into the weekend.

The Australian showed strong pace throughout the session, setting an early banker lap before fully hitting his stride once the runners switched from hard to medium tyres in the closing ten minutes under warm Sao Paulo skies.

He became the first driver to dip into the 1m09s and looked set to hold that advantage until Norris found the extra pace at the end to join him under 1m10s.

Despite missing out on the top spot, the session will no doubt still provide a boost for Piastri as he aims to regain form and challenge for the championship lead after losing it to Norris in Mexico City last round.

With rain looming over the weekend, drivers were eager to maximise track time in the sole practice session.

The short Interlagos layout produced several tricky moments, with traffic and tight corners forcing drivers to balance clean laps with tyre management.

Red Bull faced particular challenges, with Yuki Tsunoda running off into the barriers at Turn 4 in the opening ten minutes after a snap of oversteer clipped his front wing and wheel.

The incident forced Tsunoda to sit out most of the session while Red Bull carried out repairs to both his front and rear wing, leaving him at the rear of the field with limited running. Max Verstappen also struggled in the same corner, running wide multiple times and finishing 17th.

Both Red Bulls were the only cars to attempt runs on the soft tyres, with the rest of the field focusing on hard and medium programmes.

The late switch to medium tyres brought a rapid drop in lap times, with Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto impressing alongside the McLarens, finishing third and fifth respectively. Fernando Alonso also stood out in fourth, splitting the Saubers and giving the top five a varied look.

George Russell set the early pace on hard tyres but could only finish sixth, with teammate Kimi Antonelli completing the top ten in tenth.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly finished seventh, ahead of Williams’ Carlos Sainz, who returned after missing Thursday’s media day due to illness. Isack Hadjar rounded out the top ten in ninth.

Attention now turns to Sprint qualifying at 3:30pm local time (5:30am AEDT).