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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 points lead from his teammate by one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout set to begin at the evening session.

Max Verstappen, the other racer in the points battle, lying 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.

His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, albeit lightly, when he spun at the fourth corner during the early running.

Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to get away with just a slight brush of the fence.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.

Hamilton ended the session in P19, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.

The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, 0.619secs off Piastri's pace.

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