Adrian Sutil looked good in FP1 setting the 13th fastest time - more than a second faster than his team mate. Despite splitting the Toyotas, the German complained, "it was ... difficult in the morning with lots of dust and very hard to get a good lap out of it."

Fisichella was down in 18th in the first session, faster than the two Red Bulls. He echoed his team mate in saying "it was very dirty and slippery in the morning".

The Roman looked much stronger in the afternoon session, though, setting the 10th fastest time of the session. He said, "we had a very good second session with some quick times and made some strong progress on the set-up."

Half a second slower, Adrian was down in 17th place in FP2 and explained, "in the afternoon it was better, but it was still quite dusty and once you got a little bit off line you got no grip at all."

The seamless shift gearbox will be making its first race appearance this weekend, and both drivers seem optimistic. Sutil commented that it "is a very good step and I was happy with the progress" with Fisi adding that it's "working well and we can push quite hard".

Chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne sounded upbeat regarding the day's running, "all in all we ran through our normal programme and tyre evaluation and, although it's hard to tell from Friday form, I think we look more competitive and have made a slight step forward that we'll look to carry over to the rest of the weekend."

So, what do the drivers actually think of the new track? Well Fisi reckons "it's a pretty good track, nice to drive" and Adrian seems to agree, adding that it "is very challenging, but feels more like a permanent race track than a street circuit as it has lots of run off areas and long straights and very smooth asphalt".

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