Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in Mexico City recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the exit kerbs before spinning across the escape zone, and was fortunate to avoid just a slight brush of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the conclusion of the session, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619secs slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
