Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
Lando Norris has outscored his teammate at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the championship lead from his teammate by one point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four early in the session.
The Japanese spun out over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was blessed to escape with just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner before the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's car P3, over half a second off Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
