Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice Session
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the past five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who took the title advantage from his teammate by one point after his victory in Mexico City recently, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.
Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, trailing with a 36-point deficit Norris, was classified in P17 as his team opted for a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, albeit lightly, when he lost control at the fourth corner soon after starting.
Tsunoda slid over the track edges before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a minor contact of the wall.
The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the pit straight.
Hamilton finished practice in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds off the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
