Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at all of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team followed a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, though minor, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before sliding over the escape zone, and was fortunate to avoid just a minor contact of the barrier.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the high-speed corner approaching the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th place, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, 0.619secs off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
