Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice

The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The British racer, who took the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Until that point, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before the sprint shootout due at 18:30 GMT.

The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four soon after starting.

The Japanese slid over the exit kerbs before sliding over the gravel trap, and was blessed to get away with just a slight brush of the wall.

The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, spinning around through the high-speed corner leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight.

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

The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car P3, over half a second off the Australian's time.

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