Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at each of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris edged out team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the championship fight, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner during the early running.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to avoid just a slight brush of the barrier.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the fast downhill corner approaching the final bend on to the main straight.
Hamilton finished practice in 19th place, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's car P3, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.