Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, sitting 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four during the early running.
Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the escape zone, and was blessed to get away with just a light touch of the wall.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn leading to the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran finished practice in P19, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were well clear of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs off Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
