Lando Norris has outperformed Oscar Piastri at each of the past five grands prix.
The McLaren driver just pipped fellow driver and title rival the Australian for the top spot in the dying seconds of practice at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Norris, who seized the championship 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.
Earlier in the session, Oscar Piastri had been the quickest of the McLaren pair throughout the hour before the sprint shootout set to begin at 18:30 GMT.
The Red Bull star, the only other driver in the points battle, lying 36 points behind behind Norris, ended up in P17 as his team ran a alternative strategy.
His teammate the Japanese driver was the only driver to have an incident, if briefly, when he lost control at corner four early in the session.
Tsunoda spun out over the track edges before rotating through the escape zone, and was fortunate to avoid just a slight brush of the wall.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton also spun, at the very end of the practice, rotating twice through the high-speed Mergulho corner before the final bend on to the pit straight.
The seven-time champion finished practice in 19th, just behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The McLaren drivers were far ahead of the other competitors, with Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber P3, 0.619secs slower than Piastri's pace.
The Aston Martin of the Spanish driver was fourth quickest, with Sauber's Bortoleto fifth from Mercedes' George Russell and the Alpine of Pierre Gasly and Williams' Carlos Sainz.
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Nicole Nelson
Nicole Nelson
Nicole Nelson
Nicole Nelson