Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver edged out fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team followed a unique setup.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in P19, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
