Norris Edges Out Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outscored his teammate at each of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the title advantage from Piastri by one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the championship fight, sitting with a 36-point deficit Norris, was classified in P17 as his team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese spun out over the track edges before sliding over the escape zone, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the quick descending corner approaching the last turn on to the main straight.
The veteran ended the session in 19th place, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619secs off Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
