Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate 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 closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the points lead from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team opted for a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to go off, albeit lightly, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda slid over the track edges before rotating through the gravel trap, and was blessed to escape with just a minor contact of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also lost it, at the very end of the session, turning around through the quick descending corner approaching the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
