Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has beaten his teammate at all of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver edged out fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team ran a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the exit kerbs before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to get away with just a slight brush of the fence.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner approaching the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, over half a second behind Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
