Brawn GP’s Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello completed 59 laps and 61 laps respectively of the 5.554km circuit over the course of the two ninety-minute sessions ending the day in third and eighth positions on the timesheets.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren team principal

“I think everybody in the Formula One paddock has been overwhelmed by the scale and ambition of the Yas Marina circuit – it sets standards within our sport that I think will be almost impossible to eclipse. It is a truly fantastic facility, and a fine testament to the incredible vision of our hosts here in Abu Dhabi, who have treated everyone in our team with enormous warmth and hospitality. To finish the second practice session in first and second positions on the timesheets is, of course, highly encouraging, but we are aware that there are a number of closely matched teams who will be working hard to win this race. Both Heikki and Lewis did a fantastic job today. Now, our efforts will shift towards maximising our performance and ensuring we are fully prepared for a thrilling qualifying session tomorrow.”

Norbert Haug, vice-president, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

“An exceptional new racetrack with fantastic facilities. Sincere compliments to the hosts in Abu Dhabi for establishing the new benchmark of new grand prix racetracks. The atmosphere here – especially at night – is absolutely fascinating, and I am sure this will become even better during tomorrow’s qualifying and Sunday’s race. Our performance on this new track was very good today. Both Lewis and Heikki posted very competitive lap times during their race simulation long runs on both tyre compounds. I guess this was our most competitive Friday performance of the whole season.”

Brawn GP F1 Team

Ross Brawn, Brawn GP team principal

“The Yas Marina Circuit is a stunning facility and a massive credit to Abu Dhabi, Bernie, Philippe Gurdjian and the team behind it. The track layout is very interesting with some good combinations and quite challenging for the drivers. They seem to be enjoying the experience. We are pleased with how our practice programme went today. The track was very dirty at the start of the first session with high track temperatures but it was a good opportunity for the drivers to familiarise themselves with the new track. The temperatures fell dramatically going into the second session which is consistent with what we expect to see in qualifying and into the race so we worked through our usual Friday programme with the tyres and aerodynamic set-up collecting some good data.”

Panasonic Toyota Racing

Dieter Gass, Toyota chief engineer race and test

“First of all, big congratulations to the organisers who have created a really extraordinary and exciting facility here at Yas Marina. It is a pleasure to see the cars running around this track. For us it was pretty much a trouble-free day during which we focused initially on getting all the necessary information on the new track and allowing the drivers to get used to it. Everything went well and we also did some aerodynamic comparisons, mainly in the first session. In the evening session we looked more at the tyres and the results were largely as we expected; both compounds seem to be in a workable range so we can expect a consistent race. In terms of performance, as usual it is difficult to evaluate on a Friday but that is particularly true here because the effect of carrying more or less fuel is quite pronounced.”

AT&T Williams F1

Rod Nelson, Williams’ Chief Operations Engineer

“As with any new circuit, it is very important to get out for maximum track time. The circuit is very professional and immaculately presented, however, being near the desert, it is sandy which possibly coloured the times we saw today. Looking at our tyre tests, we have plenty to think about overnight. It will be interesting to see what condition the track starts in tomorrow as it certainly improved significantly over the course of today.”

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro

Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal

“We are aware of the difficulties we will face this weekend. Our main rivals in the fight for third place in the constructors’ classification are going through a very positive phase, while we are having to make a virtue of necessity, trying to get the most out what we have got to work with. However, this does not mean we will not be fighting right down to the last lap, as we are not the sort to give up that easily. As for the technical aspect of this first day of free practice, on behalf of the entire team I wish to congratulate the organizers of the Grand Prix for the work they have done: Yas Marina will become, partly thanks to the Ferrari World Park Abu Dhabi, the place to be for all racing fans.”

Chris Dyer, Ferrari chief engineer

“It was a Friday like so many others we have experienced this season. We were able to complete our entire programme with both drivers and picked up a lot of data to analyse this evening and tomorrow, in preparation for qualifying and the race. Our race pace seems pretty good, while we are struggling to get a good time out of the car on the first timed lap, which could go against us in qualifying. As for the tyre performance, it is not yet clear, at least from what we have seen today, which will be the quickest compound to use for qualifying, so we might see some different choices to usual.”

Force India Formula One Team

Dominic Harlow, Force India chief race engineer

“Today’s objectives were to allow the drivers to familiarise themselves with the circuit in the real world rather than on the simulator, ensure our cooling and brake system fundamentals were suitable, validate our wing level selection and understand the tyre behaviour as usual. We completed these steps and will review the results overnight. Adrian lost a bit of track time in both sessions with some minor issues, but this hasn’t caused any setback. What is clear without needing to look at any data however, is that this is a world-class race track and will definitely deliver an excellent event this weekend.”

BMW Sauber F1 Team

Willy Rampf, BMW Sauber head of engineering

“At the beginning of the first free practice we realized we had been quite accurate with what we expected from the track based on our simulations. However, it’s not easy to assess our own performance after day one. We have worked on race preparation, as usual. Obviously, the engine failure on Robert’s car cost us time working on the set-up. However, I believe we have enough data available to draw the right conclusions for the remainder of the weekend.”

ING Renault F1 Team

Bob Bell, Renault team principal

“It was an interesting first day in Abu Dhabi. Coming here we thought we would struggle more with the track, but it was cleaner than we expected. For us the day was mainly about the tyres, and in both sessions our main issue was with drop-off in rear tyre performance, particularly in the low-speed corners, which caused the cars to oversteer. In the high-speed corners the cars had a better balance with a bit of understeer. By the end of the day we had made good progress and have a good idea of how to move forward tomorrow.”