Norris Edges Out Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris edged out fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after his victory in Mexico City recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team opted for a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at Turn Four soon after starting.
Tsunoda slid over the exit kerbs before sliding over the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner approaching the final bend on to the main straight.
The veteran finished practice in P19, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
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.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
