Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has beaten his teammate at each of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver edged out fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from his teammate by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before rotating through the gravel trap, and was blessed to escape with just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's car in third, over half a second off Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
