Driven by WTCR rider Esteban Guerrieri, the new Honda Civic Type R managed to make the fastest lap of the French circuit 2min 01.51s . Thus setting a new record, for cars with only front-wheel drive, at Magny-Cours.
The Magny-Cours GP circuit is a 4.4km track with a mix of slow corners, long straight sections and high speed.
Esteban Guerrieri, Münnich Motorsport driver, at the wheel of a Honda Civic TCR, in the FIA World Touring Car 2018The best thing about the Type R is that it gives us confidence. It is very responsive and provides excellent feedback. People call the Type R a "hot hatch" and today we've proved that it really is; this car continues to push the limits of what's possible from front-wheel drive
“The great thing is that we could use +R mode on the track and then switch to Comfort mode and drive home,” added the Argentine.
four to go
The record now achieved at Magny-Cours represents, however, only the first stage of the “Type R Challenge 2018”, a challenge that will take a team of Honda racecar drivers to try to set, with a specific production version of the Civic Type R , new records for front-wheel-drive production cars on some of Europe's most legendary circuits.FOLLOW US ON YOUTUBE Subscribe to our channel
A similar challenge, undertaken in 2016, allowed Honda to set benchmark lap times at Estoril, Hungaroring, Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps, then using the previous generation Civic Type R.
Portuguese Tiago Monteiro among those chosen
For the “Type R Challenge 2018”, the chosen drivers were former Formula 1 World Champion and current NSX Super GT driver Jenson Button (UK), Tiago Monteiro (Portugal), Bertrand Baguette (Belgium) and the legendary driver from BTCC Matt Neal (UK).