Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session

Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The British racer, who seized the points lead from his teammate by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.

Until that point, Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at 6:30 PM GMT.

Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a different programme.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, though minor, when he spun at Turn Four during the early running.

The Japanese lost control over the track edges before spinning across the gravel trap, and was fortunate to get away with just a minor contact of the barrier.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho corner before the last turn on to the main straight.

The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, just behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.

The McLaren pair were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber third fastest, over half a second off Piastri's pace.

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