Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at all of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his team followed a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he spun at the fourth corner during the early running.
Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before spinning across the escape zone, and was blessed to escape with just a light touch of the wall.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner leading to the last turn on to the main straight.
The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
