Alfa Romeo junior Theo Pourchaire hailed his maiden FP1 outing with the team in Austin as "the best hour of my life".
Pourchaire was one of four young rookie drivers to take part in Friday's opening practice at the Circuit of the Americas, where the FIA Formula 2 charger took over Valtteri Bottas' C42.
The 19-year-old Frenchman has tested privately with Alfa Romeo in the past, but Friday's session was his first time behind the wheel of a current-spec machine.
Pourchaire clocked in 18th after putting an "amazing" 19 laps under his belt.
©AlfaRomeo
"It was amazing," he enthused at the end of the day. "The best hour of my life. It’s an amazing track, I was discovering this track and the car as well. Woah.
"A lot of emotions right now, I’m so, so happy. I’m happy to help the team as well, they did some tests. It’s all good, everyone is happy, so it’s a good start to the weekend."
While he described his 60-minute workout as "a good session", Pourchaire admitted to a few mistakes as he sought his and his car's limit.
"It was a good session, we did quite a lot of laps," he said. "There was a red flag [following Antonio Giovinazzi’s crash] at the beginning so it compromised us, a bit, at the start of the session.
"But all good, good laps. I did some mistakes, I tried to push the limits and understand some things.
"All the settings on the steering wheel, I come from F2, it’s a lot different. But it’s good experience for the future."
Next month, Pourchaire will conclude his F2 campaign in Abu Dhabi, hoping to secure his runner-up spot in the championship behind freshly-crowned champion Felipe Drugovich.
The Frenchman has yet to lay out his plans for 2023, but he'll most likely remain under the wing of Sauber/Alfa Romeo and team boss Fred Vasseur.
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