Lando Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the final moments of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the points lead from Piastri by just one point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at the fourth corner during the early running.
Tsunoda spun out over the exit kerbs before rotating through the gravel trap, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the quick descending corner before the final bend on to the pit straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's car in third, 0.619secs behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.