Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the final moments of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after winning in Mexico City a fortnight back, topped the Australian by 0.023 seconds.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind Norris, finished in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a alternative strategy.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before rotating through the gravel trap, and was lucky to avoid just a minor contact of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho turn approaching the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
