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The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris, who took the championship lead from his teammate by one point after taking the win in Mexico City 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 throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.

Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the points battle, trailing with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.

His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at corner four during the early running.

Tsunoda slid over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was fortunate to get away with just a minor contact of the barrier.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the conclusion of the session, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner approaching the final corner on to the start-finish straight.

The veteran ended the session in 19th, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.

Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs behind Piastri's pace.

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