Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the championship lead from his teammate by one point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at Turn Four soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before sliding over the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the conclusion of the session, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton ended the session in P19, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's car in third, 0.619 seconds behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
