INQUIRER Sports

ABU DHABI - Newly-crowned Formula One drivers' world champion Jenson Button led the praise Thursday for the spectacular new Yas Marina circuit here and said he was aiming to finish the season with another win.

The Brawn GP driver, who is poised to re-sign for the team for 2010, said he was particularly excited to have the chance to be the first victor in the inaugural Abu Dhabi race with so many novel features.

"It's a fantastic feeling to be going into the final race having achieved my ambition of winning the drivers' championship and with the team having wrapped up the constructors' championship in Brazil," explained Button.

"We want to finish the season in style with a great result, but we can be a little more relaxed in our approach to the weekend.

"And, of course, it's always fun to try a new race track, particularly one which looks as unique as Yas Marina does with the unusual pit-lane exit and everything else - and the fact it will be the first day-night race.

"I'm sure Abu Dhabi is going to host a memorable weekend, whatever happens, and it will be a great finale to the 2009 season."

While Button and his rivals made themselves familiar with their environment at Yas Marina, a state-of-the-art facility built on Yas, a desert island in the Arabian Bulf, within the city boundaries of Abu Dhabi, enthusiasts from around the world were also arriving to register their amazement.

Motor racing tourists from France, Spain and many other parts of Europe mingled with travelers from Australia, New Zealand and Asia, and tried to stay in the shade as he sun rose and the daytime temperature soared into the mid-thirties Celsius.

The circuit 'facility' features not only the race-track, but a majestic hotel complex, a marina, a special Ferrari world shopping centre and grounds irrigated by an automatic underground sprinkler system.

The track itself has the many specific characteristics that make it the most advanced and spectacular in the world and set new standards for Formula One, even in an age of ever-more-dramatic circuits.

The Yas Marina now leads the way ahead of previous architectural spectacles for motor racing including, in the last decade, such circuits as those built at Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur and Bahrain.

Among its most dramatic features are the following top ten, as identified by Autosport:

- The back straight, at 1.2 kilometers, is the longest in use on the F1 calendar.
- The run-off area at the end of that straight is unique because it stretches under a grandstand and that means cars spinning off will disappear out of sight beneath thousands of fans.
- Every single grandstand seat at the track is covered - the first time in F1 history.
- The pit-lane exit takes the cars beneath the track through a tunnel and a 90-degrees left turn - a feature that has caused consternation in advance.
- Sunday's 55-laps race will be the first to start in twilight and finish after dark under floodlights.
- One part of the track, the final twisting section, runs underneath the Yas Hotel, a luxury development near the Marina graced by a canopy of multi-colored computerized lights.
- The track has employed 14,000 staff in its development since February, 2007, and they have done 35 million man hours' of work.
- The air conditioning system at the circuit has been extended to include the pits, a rarity in Formula One.
- The race will be completed over 55 laps of a 5.55-kms track.
- Apart from the sky and the surrounding sea, blue will be the predominant color at the track.
- The circuit has a capacity of 50,000 and all the seats have been sold for Sunday evening's race.