Norris Leads Oscar Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the points lead from Piastri by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team opted for a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at Turn Four soon after starting.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before rotating through the run-off area, and was blessed to get away with just a slight brush of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the conclusion of the practice, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho turn approaching the final corner on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran ended the session in 19th, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were well clear of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
