Lando Norris has handed McLaren a message it could only dream of following the opening day of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, that he had a "better feeling" than last year from his very first lap.
The Las Vegas Strip Circuit has been a poor venue for McLaren ever since it joined the calendar in 2023, with Norris' P6 last season being the outfit's best result in Sin City.
As a result, the expectation ahead of track action on Thursday evening was that Norris and Oscar Piastri would struggle.
While Norris had several close calls with the various walls around the track, the championship leader ended second practice as the quickest driver.
Two late red flags did have a significant impact on the session; however, for Norris, the crucial factor is his car felt much better than it did 12 months ago.
"It's always tricky here," said Norris. "We have a better feeling in the car than what we had last year. So that's a positive, and that's how it's felt, I would say, already, since like lap one of today.
"So some good feelings, of course, not a lot of running in the end, not really any high fuel running. But the pace, clearly, is there.
"I think it's pretty tight between a lot of people, and many people didn't even get their laps in [on the soft tyre].
"So apart from that, yeah, I think we made some steps forward, from FP1 to FP2, and hopefully we can just do some more from FP2 to FP3."
Based on how his car performed, Norris is confident he will be "fighting for pole" on Friday night,m the target he has set himself.
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