Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the championship lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team followed a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.
The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was fortunate to avoid just a slight brush of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton ended the session in P19, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
