Lando Norris has outperformed his teammate at all of the past five race weekends.
The McLaren driver narrowly beat fellow driver and championship contender Oscar Piastri for the top spot in the final moments of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The British racer, who seized the championship lead from his teammate by a single point after taking the win in the Mexican Grand Prix recently, topped the Australian by a mere 0.023s.
Until that point, Piastri had been the leading McLaren during the running before the sprint shootout due at 6:30 PM GMT.
The Red Bull star, the other racer in realistic title contention, trailing 36 points Norris, was classified in 17th place as his team opted for a unique setup.
His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the only driver to have an incident, though minor, when he rotated at the fourth corner early in the session.
Tsunoda lost control over the track edges before sliding over the escape zone, and was lucky to get away with just a minor contact of the fence.
Ferrari's the seven-time champion also lost it, at the very end of the session, rotating twice through the fast downhill Mergulho turn leading to the final bend on to the start-finish straight.
The veteran wrapped up in 19th, just behind teammate the Monegasque driver.
Norris and Piastri were significantly quicker of the remaining drivers, with the German's Sauber P3, 0.619secs slower than the Australian's time.
Aston Martin's the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto in front of Mercedes' Russell and Alpine's Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
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