Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after winning in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the championship fight, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his team followed a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he lost control at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before sliding over the gravel trap, and was fortunate to escape with just a slight brush of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran wrapped up in P19, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619secs off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
