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

Norris, who seized the title advantage from Piastri by one point after his victory in Mexico City recently, topped the Australian by a mere 0.023s.

Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before the sprint shootout scheduled for the evening session.

Max Verstappen, the other racer in the points battle, sitting 36 points Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a alternative strategy.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at corner four during the early running.

Tsunoda slid over the exit kerbs before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a minor contact of the wall.

The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also lost it, at the conclusion of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.

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

The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's best.

Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.