Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the past five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the championship lead 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 quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to go off, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was blessed to escape with just a light touch of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran ended the session in P19, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs behind Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
