Norris Edges Out Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the championship lead from his teammate by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before the sprint shootout due at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at corner four soon after starting.
The Japanese spun out over the curbs on exit before sliding over the run-off area, and was lucky to avoid just a light touch of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the conclusion of the practice, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho turn approaching the last turn on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th place, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's car P3, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
