Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all 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 the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team ran a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four early in the session.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before rotating through the gravel trap, and was fortunate to avoid just a light touch of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the very end of the session, turning around through the fast downhill Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619secs behind the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
