Honda Civic Type R claims Hungaroring lap record

If you're setting out to claim a lap record at a far-away racetrack, you best get someone who knows their way around the place. And so for Honda's front-wheel-drive record attempt at the Hungaroring GP circuit, it was former F1 ace Jenson Button tasked with strapping into the Civic Type R's driver's seat.

Button has some experience on the subject; he claimed his first-ever win at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix. So it's fair to say he knows the circuit. And true to winning form, he pushed the Civic Type R to a new record for a front-wheel-drive production car, recording a 2min 10.19sec lap of the 4.38km track.

"It's great to be back here," he said. "It's the place where I scored my first victory in Formula One, in a Honda.

"It's obviously very different to what Im used to, driving a front-wheel-drive car. But it's enjoyable, you can attack the corners a lot with this car."

And attack he did. But we'll let the video speak for itself on that.

The record was actually already held by a Civic Type R, albeit the previous generation, with Button shaving less than a second off the 2:10.85 time set by Norbert Michelisz in 2016.

That now marks five lap records for the Civic Type R this year, part of a self-set challenge the brand declared when the new car claimed the front-wheel-drive record at the Nürburgring in April 2017. The other four records were at the Estoril Ciruit in Portugal (2mins 01.84secs), Silverstone in England (2mins 31.32secs), Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium (2mins 53.72secs) and the Magny-Cours GP track in France (2mins 1.51secs).

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