Lando Norris Leads Piastri in Sao Paulo Practice Session

The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris, who grabbed the points lead from Piastri by a single point after his victory in Mexico City two weeks ago, topped the Australian by 0.023 seconds.

Until that point, Piastri had been the fastest McLaren driver throughout the hour before sprint qualifying due at 18:30 GMT.

Max Verstappen, the other racer in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points behind Norris, was classified in 17th position as his team opted for a unique setup.

Verstappen's team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was the sole competitor to have an incident, albeit lightly, when he lost control at the fourth corner during the early running.

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

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also lost it, at the very end of the session, turning around through the high-speed Mergulho corner leading to the last turn on to the start-finish straight.

Hamilton ended the session in P19, one place behind team-mate the Monegasque driver.

The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car in third, 0.619 seconds off Piastri's pace.

Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.