🔗 Share this article

The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by a single point after winning in Mexico City recently, topped the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair during the running before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.

Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his team ran a different programme.

Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to crash, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner during the early running.

Tsunoda slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to get away with just a light touch of the wall.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the final moments of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho turn leading to the final corner on to the pit straight.

Hamilton finished practice in P19, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber in third, over half a second behind the Australian's time.

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