Lando Norris Tops Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice

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

The British racer, who took the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.

Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.

The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, sitting with a 36-point deficit Norris, was classified in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at Turn Four soon after starting.

Tsunoda spun out over the exit kerbs before rotating through the gravel trap, and was fortunate to avoid just a slight brush of the wall.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the quick descending Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.

Hamilton finished practice in 19th, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.

The McLaren pair were well clear of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, 0.619secs off the Australian's time.

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