Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, trailing with a 36-point deficit Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before spinning across the gravel trap, and was fortunate to get away with just a light touch of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the session, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn leading to the last turn on to the pit straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th place, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's car in third, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.