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Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris, who seized the points lead from his teammate by a single point after winning in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.

Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.

Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a different programme.

His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, though minor, when he spun at corner four during the early running.

Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the conclusion of the practice, spinning around through the fast downhill corner leading to the last turn on to the start-finish straight.

The veteran wrapped up in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, over half a second slower than Piastri's best.

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