Norris Edges Out Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris edged out fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the points lead from Piastri by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he spun at corner four during the early running.
Tsunoda slid over the exit kerbs before spinning across the gravel trap, and was fortunate to get away with just a light touch of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the fast downhill Mergulho corner leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, over half a second slower than Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
