Norris Edges Out Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has outscored his teammate at all of the past five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his team ran a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before sliding over the escape zone, and was lucky to get away with just a slight brush of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner before the final bend on to the pit straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
