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Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the final moments of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The British racer, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by a single point after winning in Mexico City two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.

Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.

The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.

Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four soon after starting.

Tsunoda slid over the track edges before spinning across the gravel trap, and was fortunate to escape with just a light touch of the fence.

The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the final moments of the session, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn approaching the final bend on to the start-finish straight.

The veteran ended the session in 19th place, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, over half a second slower than the Australian's time.

The Aston Martin of 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.