Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has beaten his teammate at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after his victory in Mexico City recently, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, sitting with a 36-point deficit Norris, finished in 17th position as his team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he spun at the fourth corner soon after starting.
The Japanese spun out over the curbs on exit before rotating through the gravel trap, and was lucky to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, 0.619secs behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
