Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
Lando Norris has beaten his teammate at each of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from his teammate by just one point after winning in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at corner four during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, 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.
Hamilton finished practice in 19th place, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619secs off Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
