Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outscored his teammate at all of the past five race weekends.
The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the points lead from Piastri by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the quick descending corner approaching the last turn on to the main straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs behind Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
