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The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri for the fastest time in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The British racer, who seized the points lead from his teammate by one point after taking the win in Mexico City a fortnight back, outpaced the Australian by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

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

The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, trailing 36 points Norris, ended up in P17 as his team ran a alternative strategy.

Verstappen's team-mate the Japanese driver was the sole competitor to go off, though minor, when he spun at corner four early in the session.

Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a slight brush of the wall.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the high-speed Mergulho turn leading to the final bend on to the main straight.

The seven-time champion finished practice in P19, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren pair were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds off the Australian's time.

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