Michèle Mouton has given the thumbs up to the all-asphalt track which has already been laid at the Stade de France in Paris in readiness for The Race of Champions-Nations Cup on December 16th.

Construction of the circuit – which has been significantly re-penned since the 2006 event to guarantee even more spectacular action and side-by-side racing – began immediately after the France-Argentina rugby union test match on November 25th.

"I'm delighted with the result," said Michèle after her first trial laps on Thursday evening (November 30). "Testing a new track design for the first time is always a little stressful but I have to say it lives up every bit up to our expectations. We knew the areas we wanted to take a close look at in a car following the transformation of our basic ideas from paper to the real thing. For example, the long straight before the cross-over bridge promises to be especially spectacular, with the cars getting up to maybe 150kph and having to shed speed fast before turning onto the bridge. And with the descent followed by a straight instead of a tight turn, that will certainly be a lot smoother too. All in all, it's been built very well and I am sure it will look great from the grandstands."

The construction of this year's track design called for 1,800 tonnes of asphalt, 2,200 tonnes of underlay and the positioning of a 100-tonne cross-over bridge. It took a team of 30 people five days to erect and it will three days to dismantle the track.