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The McLaren driver edged out fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris, who seized the points lead from Piastri by a single point after winning in Mexico City two weeks ago, outpaced the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Earlier in the session, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.

The Red Bull star, the other racer in the points battle, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at Turn Four early in the session.

Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to escape with just a minor contact of the fence.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the fast downhill Mergulho turn before the final corner on to the start-finish straight.

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

The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's car third fastest, over half a second slower than Piastri's best.

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