🔗 Share this article

Lando Norris just pipped team-mate and championship contender the Australian for the fastest time in the closing stages of practice at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The British racer, who took the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after his victory in Mexico City recently, beat the Melbourne-born driver by 0.023 seconds.

Until that point, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren for most of the session before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.

The Red Bull star, the other racer in the championship fight, trailing 36 points Norris, ended up in P17 as his team ran a different programme.

His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to go off, albeit lightly, when he spun at Turn Four early in the session.

Tsunoda lost control over the curbs on exit before sliding over the gravel trap, and was blessed to escape with just a minor contact 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 before the last turn on to the pit straight.

Hamilton ended the session in P19, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

The McLaren drivers were well clear of the rest of the field, with the German's Sauber P3, over half a second behind Piastri's best.

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