The merry band of F1 drivers were full of praise for the new Yas Marina track after the opening days running, complimenting the circuit despite the evidence witnessed by anyone who had to sit through the practice sessions.
The Yas Marina track represents the latest Hermann Tilke design to gently ease itself onto the calendar, and although the track itself is blander than beige slacks, the surrounding sparkly hotels looked very impressive, and the drivers found the dusty surface a challenge throughout Friday practice.
And having got used to racing on the new "street" track in both light and dark conditions ahead of Friday's inaugural day/night event, most drivers throughout the pit lane gushed praise into microphones by the gallon after the Friday runs.
"There is no criticism. I think they have done a very good job," Nico Rosberg, driving for Williams for the final time this weekend, platituded, "It is an interesting track and every corner is unique.
"It started off with the track being very dirty and it some time for things to get better, but then, when the track temperature dropped, the times got a lot faster, so I think we dropped our times by five seconds once there was good grip."
Rosberg's rather dull opinion was shared by Fernando Alonso, even though the Spaniard had a dire day in his Renault.
"There are some good parts of the track, like the first sector, high-speed corners, and then the last sector is a combination of very similar corners - always 90 degrees. But you enjoy it because there is always something to do on the track. There is no time to breathe," an out-of-breath Alonso claimed.
"Maybe the middle sector is a little bit more normal, with two long straights, with two big braking points, and maybe the part of the track that you enjoy less. But overall it has been a good first day."
Adrian Sutil, Force India driver extraordinaire, who had a Friday ruined by brake issues, was complimentary about the expensive and flashy new floodlight system the track had employed, which will be on for the duration of the race, even when the sun is still up, in an effort to promote F1's environmental friendliness.
"I think it is better than Singapore for sure," Sutil said, totally dissing F1's other floodlit race, "Singapore is too light, it is too bright and you don’t have the feeling of a night race.
"Here there is definitely enough light - you really see the track clearly - and it is nice. Driving into the sunset was quite cool with the sun there. It was a good feeling."
Predictably, 75-year-old Giancarlo Fisichella found something to moan about though, in particular the controversial pit exit, which features a narrow tunnel section for the drivers to negotiate.
Irate at being given some sort of challenge to overcome, Fisichella said that: "It is very difficult and a little bit dangerous. If there is an accident with two cars, I don’t know if there is a space to go through. I guess we will see if there is an incident."
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