Norris Edges Out Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outscored Oscar Piastri at each of the last five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the points lead from Piastri by a single point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar 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, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.
Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he lost control at corner four early in the session.
The Japanese slid over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, 0.619secs behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was in fourth, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.
