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The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Norris, who took the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Before then, Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.

Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing 36 points Norris, finished in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a unique setup.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, albeit lightly, when he spun at the fourth corner during the early running.

Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before rotating through the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a slight brush of the fence.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho corner leading to the final bend on to the start-finish straight.

The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second slower than the Australian's time.

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