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Lando Norris narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Norris, who grabbed the title advantage from Piastri by one point after his victory in the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.

Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at 18:30 GMT.

The Red Bull star, the other racer in the championship fight, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, finished in 17th position as his Red Bull team opted for a different programme.

His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four soon after starting.

Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before sliding over the gravel trap, and was fortunate to avoid just a minor contact of the wall.

The Ferrari of the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the practice, spinning around through the quick descending Mergulho corner approaching the final corner on to the pit straight.

The veteran ended the session in 19th place, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs behind Piastri's pace.

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