Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to go off, if briefly, when he spun at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the exit kerbs before spinning across the gravel trap, and was lucky to get away with just a slight brush of the barrier.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the practice, spinning around through the high-speed corner approaching the last turn on to the main straight.
The veteran ended the session in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
