Norris Tops Oscar Piastri in Brazilian Practice

The McLaren driver edged out team-mate and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the quickest lap in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The British racer, who took the championship lead from Piastri by a single point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, topped the Australian by 0.023 seconds.

Before then, Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before sprint qualifying scheduled for 6:30 PM GMT.

The Red Bull star, the sole remaining contender in realistic title contention, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, finished in 17th place as his team followed a different programme.

His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to crash, if briefly, when he rotated at Turn Four soon after starting.

The Japanese spun out over the exit kerbs before sliding over the run-off area, and was lucky to avoid just a minor contact of the fence.

Ferrari's the seven-time champion also spun, at the final moments of the session, rotating twice through the high-speed corner leading to the last turn on to the start-finish straight.

Hamilton ended the session in P19, trailing team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber in third, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's best.

The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Sainz.