Oscar Piastri described the Suzuka circuit as “pretty mega” after gaining his first laps of the famed venue ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver showed promising pace, too; seventh fastest in opening practice, dropping a spot in Free Practice 2 despite finding more than a second in lap time.

It was a positive day for the Woking squad, underscored by Lando Norris finishing both 60-minute sessions third fastest.

“It was good. Good fun, definitely,” enthused Piastri after his first day on track at Suzuka.

“What a circuit! It’s pretty mega, so I enjoyed it.

“I think there’s still a bit of room for myself,” he added.

“Feel like it’s been a pretty positive day for the team, we’ve been pretty quick, I would say.

“Yeah, not a bad first day in Suzuka.”

Piastri was just over a second off the ultimate pace laid down by Max Verstappen in Free Practice 1, and 0.3s away from Norris.

His progressed largely in line with the field for Free Practice 2, his margin off the top of the timesheets reducing to 0.974s while his deficit to Norris expanded slightly to 0.5s.

However, more important than lap time was getting up to speed with the upgrade package McLaren has introduced for Piastri this weekend.

While Norris had it last time out in Singapore, changes to the chassis meant there was a delay in fitting it to both cars.

“It’s very difficult to compare,” Piastri said of the new package versus the old.

“Obviously, here is such a different circuit to Singapore, it’s difficult to make a direct comparison.

“And also just the tarmac and the grip level here seems to be quite difficult for everybody.

“It doesn’t feel massively different, but as long as it’s quicker, that’s all I care about.”