Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting 36 points Norris, was classified in P17 as his team opted for a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he lost control at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to get away with just a minor contact of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in P19, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second off Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
