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Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Norris, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.

Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his Red Bull team opted for a unique setup.

Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at the fourth corner during the early running.

Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before sliding over the gravel trap, and was blessed to escape with just a light touch of the wall.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the fast downhill Mergulho corner approaching the last turn on to the start-finish 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 other competitors, with the German's car in third, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's best.

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