The British driver has beaten Oscar Piastri at all of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped team-mate and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of the practice session at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the points lead from Piastri by one point after winning in the Mexican Grand Prix a fortnight back, outpaced the Melbourne-born driver by a mere 0.023s.
Before then, Oscar Piastri had been the leading McLaren throughout the hour before sprint qualifying set to begin at the evening session.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, lying with a 36-point deficit Norris, ended up in P17 as his Red Bull team followed a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he spun at the fourth corner during the early running.
The Japanese slid over the curbs on exit before spinning across the run-off area, and was lucky to escape with just a light touch of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the very end of the session, spinning around through the high-speed corner before the final corner on to the pit straight.
The veteran finished practice in 19th, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Norris and Piastri were far ahead of the remaining drivers, with Nico Hulkenberg's car third fastest, 0.619secs behind the Australian's time.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Bortoleto in front of the Mercedes of Russell and the Alpine of Gasly and the Williams of Carlos Sainz.