Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the championship fight, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team ran a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to go off, if briefly, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was blessed to get away with just a light touch of the barrier.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner before the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds behind the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
