Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five race weekends.
Lando Norris edged out team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from his teammate by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda slid over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was fortunate to get away with just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho turn before the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton ended the session in P19, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second slower than Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
