Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from his teammate by just one point after winning in Mexico City two weeks ago, topped the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda slid over the track edges before sliding over the gravel trap, and was lucky to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending corner before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran finished practice in 19th, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, over half a second slower than Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
