Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at each of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a unique setup.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at the fourth corner soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before sliding over the gravel trap, and was lucky to get away with just a minor contact of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner leading to the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in P19, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's car in third, 0.619secs off Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
