Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the past five race weekends.
Lando Norris just pipped team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by just one point after his victory in Mexico City recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the points battle, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda slid over the exit kerbs before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner approaching the final corner on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th place, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
