Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outscored his teammate at all of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was fortunate to avoid just a minor contact of the barrier.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho corner before the final bend on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th place, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
