Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after winning in Mexico City recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to go off, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before rotating through the run-off area, and was fortunate to avoid just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the conclusion of the practice, spinning around through the fast downhill Mergulho turn leading to the last turn on to the main straight.
Hamilton finished practice in 19th place, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619secs off Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
