Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at each of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his team ran a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was lucky to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the pit straight.
Hamilton wrapped up in 19th, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's car in third, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
