Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the past five race weekends.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the points lead from his teammate by just one point after winning in Mexico City recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished 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, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four soon after starting.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before sliding over the gravel trap, and was fortunate to avoid just a minor contact of the barrier.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also lost it, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner before the last turn on to the pit straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds off the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
