Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
Lando Norris has outscored his teammate at each of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from his teammate by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his team followed a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the exit kerbs before spinning across the escape zone, and was fortunate to avoid just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th place, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, over half a second off Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
