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LIVE: Armed with a fresh contract extension at McLaren, Australia’s Oscar Piastri arrives at Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix with another major boost – a raft of upgrades that he hopes will deliver him a first podium of his rookie F1 career.

On the back of his 17th-to-seventh drive in Singapore, Piastri this week locked in a contract extension that will see him remain at the papaya team until 2026.

Now he prepares for his first-ever attempt at the Mie Prefecture track with its 18 corners – many of them challenging high-speed turns.

In the first practice session on Friday afternoon, Piastri finished a strong seventh-fastest as Max Verstappen made a massive statement, lapping in 1:31.647 seconds to open up a whopping gap of 0.626 seconds on the rest of the field.

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It was a significant return to form for Red Bull, who in Singapore failed to win a race for the first time this season. But teammate Sergio Perez was just 11th in the second Red Bull car, almost 1.4 seconds off the Dutchman’s fastest time.

Carlos Sainz was second for Ferrari, while Lando Norris was third for McLaren – but promisingly for Piastri, he was just three-tenths of a second behind his teammate’s time.

Charles Leclerc was fourth in the second Ferrari, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri and Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin.

Speaking after the session, McLaren CEO Zak Brown crowed about the young gun’s performance in his first session at Suzuka.

“We got the upgrades on Oscar’s car last night, so it’s good to see him get up to speed very quickly,” he said.

He added: “We tried the new tyres but I think we’ll be competitive this weekend… I think it’ll be a fun race.”

Asked how he prepared his rookie driver for the tricky circuit, Brown said: “A lot of simulation, a lot of simulator time… it took him about five laps (to adjust to the new track).

“This is a tricky track. For him to get up to speed so quickly is pretty impressive. I think the simulator had something to do with it but so is his talent.”

Speaking about Piastri’s development this season – in line with the significant development of the car through the year – Brown said: “I think there’s a lot more to come, which is the exciting part. His maturity is what has been most impressive and his technical feedback and understanding.

“I think no one is surprised at the pace but he’s so mature, he’s very calm. He kind of takes one session at a time and come show-time he’s right there.

“You can see his confidence is growing because his Fridays now are becoming more competitive than the start of the year.

“Our driver line-up – of all the things that need to be competitive, I’m not worried about the driver line-up.”

PREVIEW

Speaking ahead of the grand prix…