Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris edged out team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the points lead from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City recently, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda slid over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to avoid just a minor contact of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the session, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th place, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, over half a second slower than the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.