Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the championship lead from his teammate by one point after taking the win in Mexico City recently, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in P17 as his team followed a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda slid over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to avoid just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the fast downhill corner before the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, 0.619secs off Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
