Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris just pipped team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the final moments of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the points lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in Mexico City recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his team opted for a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before rotating through the run-off area, and was blessed to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the last turn on to the pit straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's car P3, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
