Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team followed a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at Turn Four early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before sliding over the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a light touch of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending corner approaching the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second slower than Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
