Lando Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outscored his teammate at all of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his team ran a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he lost control at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before sliding over the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a light touch of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also lost it, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the fast downhill corner leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619secs off Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
