Lando Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the championship fight, sitting with a 36-point deficit Norris, finished in P17 as his team ran a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, albeit lightly, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner before the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th place, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
