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Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The British racer, who grabbed the championship lead from his teammate by one point after his victory in Mexico City recently, topped the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.

Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.

The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, sitting with a 36-point deficit behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team opted for a different programme.

His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to go off, though minor, when he lost control at corner four soon after starting.

The Japanese slid over the track edges before spinning across the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a slight brush of the wall.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the conclusion of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill corner leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight.

Hamilton ended the session in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, over half a second behind Piastri's pace.

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