Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice

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

Norris, who took the points lead from Piastri by just one point after taking the win in Mexico City recently, outpaced the Australian by 0.023 seconds.

Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.

Max Verstappen, the other racer in the championship fight, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th position as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy.

His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, albeit lightly, when he spun at corner four during the early running.

Tsunoda slid over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a light touch of the wall.

The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner approaching the last turn on to the pit straight.

The veteran finished practice in P19, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's pace.

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