Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the points lead from Piastri by one point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout due at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, though minor, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the exit kerbs before spinning across the gravel trap, and was blessed to get away with just a light touch of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner leading to the final bend on to the main straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th place, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619secs behind Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
