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Lando Norris just pipped fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The British racer, who took the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after his victory in Mexico City a fortnight back, beat the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.

Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.

The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a alternative strategy.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he rotated at the fourth corner soon after starting.

The Japanese slid over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was blessed to escape with just a light touch of the barrier.

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

Hamilton ended the session in 19th, one place behind teammate the Monegasque driver.

The McLaren drivers were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds slower than Piastri's best.

The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from the Mercedes of Russell and Alpine's Gasly and the Williams of Sainz.