Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the title advantage from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, trailing 36 points behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the gravel trap, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran wrapped up in P19, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
