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Lando Norris edged out fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Norris, who grabbed the points lead from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.

Before then, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before sprint qualifying due at the evening session.

The Red Bull star, the other racer in the championship fight, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a different programme.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, if briefly, when he spun at Turn Four early in the session.

Tsunoda spun out over the curbs on exit before spinning across the gravel trap, and was fortunate to avoid just a slight brush of the barrier.

The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the final moments of the practice, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn before the last turn on to the start-finish straight.

The veteran finished practice in 19th place, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds behind Piastri's pace.

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