Lewis Hamilton may have loved the Las Vegas Grand Prix track in the end, but early in the race he was suggesting it should be stopped.
It was an eventful start to the Grand Prix as a virtual safety car was deployed almost immediately after several incidents at the first corner. Hamilton was one of those who made contact with another car but, unlike a few others, did not spin.
He did lose a lot of time though and so he was towards the back of the pack when Lando Norris lost control at high speed and slammed into a wall. That crash brought out the full safety car while the McLaren was recovered.
Hamilton did not pit and nor did team-mate George Russell, but both of them were concerned about being behind the safety car on the slippery new surface. Given that factor, along with the low temperatures, Hamilton was particularly concerned about the dangers.
"There's no grip out here," he reported over the radio, before suggesting that race control might have to consider stopping the race. "This pace is so slow it's dangerous for us. They need to either speed up or stop this," he added.
And Russell voiced his concerns in a radio message of his own. He said: "Tyre temps are dropping like a stone here. The safety car really needs a bit of a move on."
Fortunately, neither of their fears came to fruition as, when the racing resumed, they went without incident until they had heat back in their tyres again. And, despite an eventful race which saw him suffer several setbacks before ultimately finishing seventh, Hamilton declared afterwards that he had loved racing on the new street circuit.
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He said: "I'm really happy to have had a positive race and I'm really grateful that the race was so good. I don't know how it was as a spectacle to watch but there was so much overtaking. It was like Baku, but better.
"I really wasn't expecting the track to be so great, but the more and more laps I did, I just really loved racing. Lots of great overtaking opportunities. I think for all those who were so negative about the weekend, saying it's all about the show, blah blah blah, I think Vegas proved them wrong."
Max Verstappen won the race, his 18th victory of the season, while Charles Leclerc got the better of Sergio Perez on the final lap to snatch second from the Mexican. Norris was taken to hospital after a precaution following his hefty smash but was later released with no lasting damage done.