Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outscored his teammate at all of the past five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who took the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a different programme.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner soon after starting.
The Japanese lost control over the exit kerbs before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the quick descending corner leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran finished practice in P19, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, 0.619secs behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
