Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at each of the last five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the quickest lap in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, trailing 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his Red Bull team opted for a different programme.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to go off, albeit lightly, when he spun at the fourth corner during the early running.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before sliding over the escape zone, and was fortunate to escape with just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, over half a second behind Piastri's best.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
