Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed Oscar Piastri at all of the previous five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City recently, topped the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team opted for a alternative strategy.
Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at the fourth corner soon after starting.
The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to avoid just a slight brush of the barrier.
The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the quick descending corner approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's pace.
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.
