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Lawson was back in Japan for this week’s two-day test, as well as last weekend’s Suzuka Fan Thanks Day event, as he gears up for his first season racing in Super Formula for defending champion outfit Team Mugen.
He finished Monday’s opening day of running with the ninth-fastest time, but improved to fifth on day two, getting within half a second of pacesetter Kamui Kobayashi.
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Reflecting on his two days of running, Lawson said that he is feeling increasingly comfortable and competitive in his new environment after two seasons of racing in Formula 2.
“There’s still quite a big gap to Kamui in first, but I feel better in the car than I did on Monday and in the rookie test [last December],” Lawson told Motorsport.com.
“We tried a lot of stuff, we did some long runs and we have a better understanding now of the new tyre, and the final attack lap was quite good at the end.
“It was quite cool, everyone drove out of the box at the same time with new tyres, it felt like a proper qualifying session. I think it was quite representative.
“We still don’t know who was running on what fuel loads, so you never know, but I feel in the mix.”
Lawson however concedes that he will be at a disadvantage for the opening weekend at Fuji on April 8-9 as he will have no chance to drive at the track before the first free practice session of the weekend.
“Now we’re going to a track I haven’t done before,” he said. “It’s all very well being quick here, but I need to do the same at tracks I haven’t driven before.
“The team has a lot of data to look at and come up with the best baseline set-up going into Fuji. But it will be im …