Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from his teammate by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at the fourth corner soon after starting.
Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to avoid just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
