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Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Before then, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.

The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, trailing 36 points Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he lost control at the fourth corner soon after starting.

Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was fortunate to avoid just a minor contact of the barrier.

The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn leading to the final bend on to the start-finish straight.

The veteran ended the session in 19th, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were well clear of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's best.

The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and Alpine's Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.