Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout due at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his team followed a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at corner four during the early running.
Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a light touch of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the fast downhill corner approaching the final corner on to the pit straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th place, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the remaining drivers, with the German's car third fastest, over half a second behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
