Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice

The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City recently, topped the Australian by a mere 0.023s.

Before then, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.

The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his team opted for a unique setup.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at the fourth corner soon after starting.

The Japanese lost control over the exit kerbs before rotating through the gravel trap, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.

The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the final bend on to the pit straight.

The seven-time champion ended the session in 19th, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.

Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Sainz.