Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after winning in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout due at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his team opted for a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, albeit lightly, when he spun at the fourth corner soon after starting.
Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the session, turning around through the fast downhill corner leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran wrapped up in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
