Lando Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by one point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at the fourth corner soon after starting.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was fortunate to get away with just a minor contact of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the fast downhill Mergulho corner approaching the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton ended the session in P19, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second slower than Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
