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Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris, who grabbed the points lead 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.

Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session.

Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, lying 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his team ran a unique setup.

His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to go off, though minor, when he spun at corner four soon after starting.

Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the barrier.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending corner before the final bend on to the pit straight.

The veteran ended the session in 19th place, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.

The McLaren pair were well clear of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's pace.

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