Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by one point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, trailing 36 points Norris, was classified in P17 as his team ran a unique setup.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn approaching the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th place, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were well clear of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds off the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
