Superb grip and a perfectly smooth asphalt course awaited the drivers in the final race of the 2009 Formula 1 season. They went to the starting grid in Abu Dhabi for the first time on 1st November. The brand new 5.5 km "Yas Marina Circuit" was constructed with the intensive collaboration of numerous rollers from Hamm AG in Tirschenreuth.

The new Grand Prix track is part of a gigantic 40 billion dollar project on the "Yas" Peninsula with the aim of establishing Abu Dhabi as a holiday paradise. The employees of Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, put their faith in German technology and know-how for many of their building projects. The German construction company, Bickhardt from Kirchheim, who was responsible for constructing the asphalt courses, were sticklers for quality and took brand new Hamm rollers to the Persian Gulf. The rollers from the Upper Palatinate had been deployed there from autumn 2008. They compacted the base, binder and surface courses on the race track with escape areas, in the paddock and on all emergency routes and also on all roads and parking areas on the newly developed peninsula. The 7 asphalt rollers have produced a 750,000 m² area of asphalt from 210,000 tonnes of asphalt in total in Abu Dhabi.

The construction of the top asphalt course, the "surface course", on the race track was of particular interest. It was laid at the beginning of August. The work was done at night when it was "cool" because the temperatures in summer regularly exceed 50°C during the day. Hamm employee Wolfgang Schlicht from Friedenfels, made a photographic record of the spectacular construction site and saw how the new track was given the finishing touch in this "hot" phase in both senses of the word: "It was very impressive to see the large number of Hamm rollers on the race track at the start of the night shift. They stood lined up like racing cars between the grandstands and waited for the starting signal. Then men and machines worked the whole night without a break in bright floodlight." But also on the way to and from the track his "Hamm" heart beat faster because there were crowds of construction machines from the Upper Palatinate outside the race track as well. This time it was Arab companies using Hamm rollers to compact the new access roads for the race on 1st November.