Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a unique setup.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at Turn Four early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before spinning across the gravel trap, and was blessed to avoid just a slight brush of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending corner leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's car third fastest, over half a second slower than Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.