Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the points lead from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City recently, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in the points battle, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, albeit lightly, when he spun at the fourth corner soon after starting.
Tsunoda slid over the exit kerbs before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to get away with just a minor contact of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho turn leading to the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran wrapped up in P19, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's car third fastest, over half a second slower than Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
