Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the title advantage from Piastri by one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at corner four during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was fortunate to get away with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the fast downhill corner approaching the last turn on to the main straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619secs off Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.