Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outscored his teammate at each of the past five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, though minor, when he spun at corner four during the early running.
The Japanese spun out over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to escape with just a minor contact of the barrier.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the fast downhill Mergulho turn leading to the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds off the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
