Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at each of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, trailing 36 points Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team opted for a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also lost it, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner before the last turn on to the main straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Sainz.