Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team followed a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, though minor, when he spun at Turn Four soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a light touch of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho turn before the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, over half a second behind Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
