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The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Norris, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by one point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.

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

Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team followed a unique setup.

Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at Turn Four during the early running.

The Japanese lost control over the curbs on exit before rotating through the escape zone, and was lucky to escape with just a light touch of the wall.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the conclusion of the practice, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho turn leading to the final corner on to the start-finish straight.

The veteran wrapped up in P19, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.

The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's best.

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