Norris Edges Out Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice

The McLaren driver edged out fellow driver and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the final moments of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Norris, who took the title advantage from his teammate by just one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.

Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying scheduled for the evening session.

Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind Norris, finished in P17 as his team ran a different programme.

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

The Japanese slid over the track edges before sliding over the run-off area, and was lucky to avoid just a slight brush of the wall.

The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, turning around through the fast downhill corner approaching the last turn on to the pit straight.

The seven-time champion wrapped up in P19, trailing teammate the Monegasque driver.

The McLaren pair were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's best.

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