Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from Piastri by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at the fourth corner soon after starting.
The Japanese lost control over the exit kerbs before rotating through the run-off area, and was blessed to avoid just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the session, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner approaching the final corner on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th place, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.