Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has beaten his teammate at all of the previous five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, outpaced the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.
Tsunoda slid over the track edges before sliding over the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a light touch of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed corner approaching the final bend on to the pit straight.
Hamilton ended the session in P19, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
