Lando Norris Edges Out Piastri in Brazilian Practice

The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the final moments of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Norris, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by a single point after winning in Mexico City two weeks ago, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.

Max Verstappen, the other racer in the points battle, sitting with a 36-point deficit Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.

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

Tsunoda spun out over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was fortunate to escape with just a slight brush of the barrier.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner approaching the final bend on to the pit straight.

The seven-time champion ended the session in P19, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's car P3, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's best.

The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was in fourth, with the Sauber of Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.