Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at all of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in P17 as his team opted for a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was fortunate to escape with just a minor contact of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the quick descending corner approaching the final corner on to the pit straight.
The veteran ended the session in P19, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, over half a second behind Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
