Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
Lando Norris has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the points lead from Piastri by a single point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at the fourth corner soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before spinning across the escape zone, and was blessed to avoid just a slight brush of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the quick descending corner before the final bend on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
