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

Norris, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.

The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, trailing with a 36-point deficit Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.

Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to go off, albeit lightly, when he lost control at corner four during the early running.

Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before spinning across the gravel trap, and was lucky to escape with just a light touch of the barrier.

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

The veteran finished practice in 19th place, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's car P3, 0.619secs slower than the Australian's time.

The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.