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Lando Norris 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.

Norris, who took the title advantage from Piastri by a single point after winning in Mexico City a fortnight back, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Before then, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before the sprint shootout set to begin at 6:30 PM GMT.

The Red Bull star, the only other driver in realistic title contention, lying 36 points Norris, ended up in 17th place as his Red Bull team ran a unique setup.

His teammate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at Turn Four during the early running.

The Japanese lost control over the track edges before sliding over the escape zone, and was blessed to escape with just a minor contact of the barrier.

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

Hamilton finished practice in 19th place, trailing teammate Charles Leclerc.

Norris and Piastri were well clear of the other competitors, with the German's Sauber third fastest, 0.619secs off the Australian's time.

Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso was fourth fastest, with Sauber's Bortoleto ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Sainz.