Norris Leads Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from his teammate by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.
Before then, Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his team opted for a different programme.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, if briefly, when he rotated at corner four soon after starting.
The Japanese lost control over the track edges before sliding over the escape zone, and was lucky to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the session, turning around through the fast downhill Mergulho turn leading to the final corner on to the main straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, over half a second off Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
