Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four early in the session.
Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before sliding over the gravel trap, and was lucky to avoid just a light touch of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner approaching the final bend on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's car P3, over half a second off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
