Norris Tops Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at each of the previous five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the points lead from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running 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, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at the fourth corner soon after starting.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before rotating through the run-off area, and was fortunate to escape with just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner leading to the final bend on to the main straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th place, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.