Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at all of the past five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the points lead from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, topped the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, though minor, when he lost control at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before sliding over the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the pit straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
