Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the points lead from Piastri by just one point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout due at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to go off, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four during the early running.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the barrier.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
