Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outscored his teammate at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the title advantage from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he lost control at Turn Four soon after starting.
The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to avoid just a light touch of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the last turn on to the pit straight.
Hamilton finished practice in 19th place, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's car P3, 0.619 seconds off the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.