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Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after winning in Mexico City recently, outpaced the Australian by 0.023 seconds.

Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.

The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team ran a different programme.

Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to go off, though minor, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.

Tsunoda slid over the exit kerbs before rotating through the gravel trap, and was blessed to avoid just a slight brush of the fence.

The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho turn before the final corner on to the main straight.

The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th place, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.

The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber in third, over half a second off the Australian's time.

The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.