Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from his teammate by just one point after winning in Mexico City recently, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at Turn Four early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before sliding over the run-off area, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the pit straight.
The veteran ended the session in 19th place, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619secs off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
