Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has beaten his teammate at each of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the title advantage from his teammate by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing with a 36-point deficit Norris, finished in P17 as his team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, albeit lightly, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, turning around through the high-speed corner leading to the final bend on to the main straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th place, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's car in third, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
