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The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the final moments of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The British racer, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by just one point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before the sprint shootout due at 6:30 PM GMT.

Max Verstappen, the only other driver in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his team followed a unique setup.

His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he spun at corner four soon after starting.

Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was fortunate to escape with just a minor contact of the wall.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the final moments of the session, turning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner leading to the final bend on to the pit straight.

The veteran wrapped up in P19, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren pair were far ahead of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second behind Piastri's pace.

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