Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice
The British driver has outperformed his teammate at each of the previous five grands prix.
The McLaren driver edged out fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, topped the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.
Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.
Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, though minor, when he spun at corner four during the early running.
The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to avoid just a light touch of the barrier.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn before the final corner on to the pit straight.
Hamilton ended the session in 19th, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.
The McLaren pair were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's car third fastest, 0.619 seconds behind the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.
