Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at all of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his team opted for a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
The Japanese spun out over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho turn leading to the final corner on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
