Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from his teammate by a single point after his victory in Mexico City recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his team followed a unique setup.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner during the early running.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to avoid just a light touch of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner before the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th place, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619secs off Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
