McLaren had been tipped to be a strong contender this weekend, with the MCL60 expected to benefit from the sweeping high speed corners of the Suzuka International Racing Course.
And on the face of it, the car delivered to expectations with Lando Norris finishing Friday's practice sessions in third place behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Norris was under half a second away from the back-in-form Verstappen, while his team mate Oscar Piastri was eighth quickest in the final results for FP2 putting the Aussie one place ahead of Verstappen's team mate Sergio Perez.
Yet despite that result, Norris was cautious predicting how McLaren would fare when it came to final practice and qualifying on Saturday, and the Japanese Grand Prix itself on Sunday.
Read also: Verstappen continues to set the pace in Japan second practice
"It's encouraging from a pace point of view," Norris told the media in the paddock afterwards. "But the car feels pretty all over the place. I kind of think it does for the majority [of drivers on the grid].
"It’s just very low grip, I don’t think it’s just us in particular, it’s just a handful," he explained. "If we can just calm it down a little bit, bring the balance together, I think we can have a good day tomorrow.
"I’m finding small improvements here and there. The speed is relatively good and if we can tidy some things up, I think we can have a good day tomorrow.
"The pace is good, just difficult to drive," he continued. "The balance is a bit all-over-the-place in these very low grip conditions, but I think it’s a problem the whole grid has.
"The pace was there. The pace has been pretty good today. Probably one of the closest times we’ve been to Red Bull and the front lot on a Friday."
Asked if he felt that might mean he was in with a shot of pole tomorrow, Norris admitted: “I doubt it’s going to be pole. The Red Bull is just doing normal Red Bull at the minute. But I think we are not far away.
"We normally get a bit closer come lower fuel, turn the engines up, things like that. I think challenging for pole is probably quite a big task, and probably quite too far.
"But to try and challenge Mercedes, who maybe didn’t look quite so good today, challenge the Ferraris, and Astons who looked pretty good - I think that’s going to be our battle tomorrow."
His rookie team mate Piastri - who is driving at Suzuka for the first time, just days after it was confirmed he had signed a contract extension to stay at McLaren until 2026 - was also reasonably happy with his day.
"Good fun. What a circuit, it’s pretty mega," he said, adding that he felt there was "still a bit of room to improve" over the weekend.
"It’s been a pretty positive day for the team, we’ve been pretty quick I would say, so not a bad first day in Suzuka."
This weekend is Piastri's first opportunity to try out the new updates to the MCL60. Norris had the new parts last week in Singapore and picked up second place, but Piastri isn't sure if they're making a big difference.
“Obviously here is such a different circuit to Singapore, [so it's] difficult to make a direct comparison. Also just the tarmac and the grip level here seems to be quite difficult here for everybody.
"It doesn’t feel massively different," he concluded. "But as long as its quicker, that’s all I care!"
“We’ve had a clean, productive first day at Suzuka," pronounced team principal Andrea Stella. "The team was able to complete our programme with no major issues for either car.
"The track presents some interesting challenges for set-up," he observed. "The tyre degradation is high, but the grip level is low, so, there’s a few things we need to look into tonight, but overall the MCL60 seems to be behaving well.
"We’ll take a good look tonight at the information we acquired today, with a view to being as well-prepared as we can be for the rest of the weekend.”
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