Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after winning in Mexico City recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his team followed a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at the fourth corner during the early running.
Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to avoid just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn leading to the last turn on to the main straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th place, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, over half a second off Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
