Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the championship lead from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at Turn Four during the early running.
The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final corner on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in P19, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
