Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.
Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the championship lead from Piastri by one point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, topped the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, sitting 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.
The Japanese lost control over the exit kerbs before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the barrier.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn approaching the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
