The Briton was beaten to the front row of the grid by rookie team-mate Piastri by a scant 0.035s, although Max Verstappen's advantage over the Australian spanned over half a second en route to pole position.
Norris explained that McLaren would "try" to take the fight to Verstappen, but deadpanned that there was not a lot that the team could do unless Piastri resorted to more nefarious tactics to open the path ahead.
He cited the infamous 1990 clash between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at the same venue, in which Senna refused to yield the inside line while behind Prost at the start which caused a first-corner collision that secured the Brazilian the world title.
"We're going to try [to beat Verstappen], but if he's leading by Turn 2, there's not a lot you can really do," Norris said.
"If you want to emulate Senna ['s move on Prost], Oscar, into Turn 1 and do that happily, it would be lovely for me!
"We'll try, I think our race pace is decent, it's definitely not going to be as good as the Red Bull, but we'll do our best."
Piastri added that McLaren would be aiming to provide a similar challenge at the start as it managed at the British Grand Prix, where Norris snatched the lead in the first corner and led for a handful of laps.
Source: Autosport