Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the past five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the title advantage from Piastri by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before sprint qualifying scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was fortunate to get away with just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the high-speed corner before the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran finished practice in 19th, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619secs behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
