Oscar Piastri had a “good first day” following two hours of practice ahead of Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver ended the day ninth while his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris was second fastest behind Max Verstappen.
It was an encouragingly positive performance on a weekend Piastri predicted would be more difficult for the team given the nature of the Mexico City circuit, the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
The 22-year-old Australian had never driven the circuit prior to opening practice and noted the lack of grip – a result of both a dusty track and high altitude which robs cars of more than 20 percent of their downforce.
“Low grip, definitely,” he observed.
“It was a good first day. I think car pace looks reasonable.
“The track’s low grip does take a lot of getting used to, but it seems cool.
“I feel like I’ve built up through the day and seemed like a reasonable FP2 session.
“Some things to still tidy up and find tomorrow but looking reasonable.”
Piastri was sixth fastest in Free Practice 1 in Mexico, his best 0.745s away from the fastest and 0.2s down on Norris.
That session saw five rookies, with Frederik Vesti in action for Mercedes and Oliver Bearman for Ferrari.
Jack Doohan was also in action for Alpine while Isack Hadjar stepped in at Scuderia AlphaTauri.
Alfa Romeo Sauber enlisted Theo Pourchaire, though a brake issue saw the Frenchman without a time at the end of the 60 minutes of running.
As a result, the usual tempo of Friday’s running was different, making the true order difficult to read.
Regardless, Piastri was pleased with how his day unfolded and is now looking to build on that in final practice ahead of qualifying on Saturday (local time).
“I think some more laps, but also probably have some more qualifying attempts and stuff like that,” he said when asked what was needed to continue his forward progress.
“The programme today has been a bit more jumbled for everyone I think, so it’s a bit harder to get a proper read and what everyone’s like.
“But just more attempts, you know, that’s what I usually need every weekend and hopefully by qualifying it’s in the right place.”
Piastri ended the day just 0.477s back from Verstappen and 0.358s on single lap pace from Norris.
Free Practice 3 begins at 04:30 AEDT on Sunday with qualifying to follow at 08:00 (11:30 and 15:00 local time, Saturday).
