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Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The British racer, who took the championship lead from his teammate by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.

The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, lying 36 points behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his team ran a unique setup.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he rotated at Turn Four during the early running.

Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before sliding over the escape zone, and was blessed to avoid just a light touch of the fence.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner before the last turn on to the main straight.

The veteran ended the session in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, over half a second slower than the Australian's time.

The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and Williams' Sainz.