Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, beat the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at corner four soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to get away with just a slight brush of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the conclusion of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn leading to the last turn on to the pit straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
