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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 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris, who seized the title advantage from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in Mexico City two weeks ago, topped the Melbourne-born driver by a tiny margin of 0.023secs.

Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver during the running before sprint qualifying scheduled for 18:30 GMT.

The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind behind Norris, was classified in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a alternative strategy.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at corner four early in the session.

Tsunoda lost control over the exit kerbs before spinning across the run-off area, and was fortunate to avoid just a light touch of the fence.

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

The seven-time champion wrapped up in 19th place, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren pair were significantly quicker of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds behind the Australian's time.

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