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The McLaren driver narrowly beat team-mate and title rival the Australian for the fastest time in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The British racer, who took the points lead from his teammate by one point after winning in Mexico City recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Before then, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair for most of the session before the sprint shootout scheduled for 18:30 GMT.

Max Verstappen, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, lying 36 points behind Norris, ended up in 17th place as his team ran a alternative strategy.

Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the only driver to go off, albeit lightly, when he lost control at the fourth corner early in the session.

Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was blessed to escape with just a slight brush of the barrier.

The Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton also had a spin, at the conclusion of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho turn approaching the final corner on to the start-finish straight.

Hamilton ended the session in 19th, trailing team-mate the Monegasque driver.

The McLaren pair were far ahead of the rest of the field, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber third fastest, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's pace.

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