Norris Edges Out Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice

The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris, who took the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.

Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.

The Red Bull star, the other racer in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his team ran a different programme.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at corner four early in the session.

Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before sliding over the gravel trap, and was blessed to escape with just a minor contact of the fence.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed corner before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.

The veteran ended the session in P19, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, over half a second off the Australian's time.

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