Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at all of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four during the early running.
Tsunoda lost control over the exit kerbs before spinning across the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the session, turning around through the fast downhill corner approaching the final bend on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th place, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619secs slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
