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Lando Norris edged out team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The British racer, who took the points lead from his teammate by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, outpaced the Australian by a mere 0.023s.

Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.

Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team followed a unique setup.

His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to go off, if briefly, when he rotated at the fourth corner during the early running.

Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before sliding over the gravel trap, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the barrier.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed corner leading to the final corner on to the main straight.

The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.

Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's car P3, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.

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