Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris edged out team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team opted for a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he lost control at corner four during the early running.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before spinning across the gravel trap, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, over half a second off Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
