Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has beaten his teammate at each of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team followed a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to avoid just a slight brush of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th place, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs behind Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
