Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has beaten his teammate at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the final moments of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the title advantage from his teammate by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before spinning across the gravel trap, and was blessed to get away with just a slight brush of the barrier.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho turn approaching the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton finished practice in 19th place, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, over half a second off Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
