Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has beaten his teammate at each of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris edged out fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the points lead from his teammate by one point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before spinning across the gravel trap, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the practice, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner approaching the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
