Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has beaten his teammate at all of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the points lead from Piastri by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team ran a different programme.
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 lost control over the track edges before sliding over the gravel trap, and was blessed to avoid just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho turn leading to the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th place, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
