Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outscored his teammate at all of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session 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, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in P17 as his team ran a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, albeit lightly, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th place, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619secs behind the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
