Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after his victory in Mexico City recently, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, finished in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to go off, if briefly, when he rotated at the fourth corner soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a slight brush of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the last turn on to the pit straight.
The veteran ended the session in 19th place, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.