Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the past five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the points lead from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to go off, though minor, when he spun at the fourth corner soon after starting.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the gravel trap, and was lucky to escape with just a slight brush of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner approaching the final corner on to the pit straight.
The veteran ended the session in 19th place, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs off Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
