Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, outpaced the Australian 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.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the exit kerbs before sliding over the gravel trap, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the fast downhill corner approaching the last turn on to the pit straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's car in third, over half a second off Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
