Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced 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 sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team ran a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, though minor, when he lost control at corner four soon after starting.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before sliding over the run-off area, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the barrier.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho turn leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
