Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the final moments of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, trailing with a 36-point deficit Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda slid over the exit kerbs before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's car P3, over half a second behind Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
