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Lando Norris narrowly beat team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The British racer, who took the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by a mere 0.023s.

Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.

Max Verstappen, the only other driver in realistic title contention, sitting 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his team opted for a unique setup.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.

The Japanese spun out over the track edges before rotating through the gravel trap, and was blessed to avoid just a minor contact of the barrier.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also had a spin, at the very end of the practice, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.

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

Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619 seconds slower than the Australian's time.

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