Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outscored his teammate at each of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the title advantage from his teammate by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before rotating through the gravel trap, and was blessed to avoid just a slight brush of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the final bend on to the main straight.
The veteran finished practice in 19th, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
