Harrison Newey posted a time well below the existing Donington Park Grand Prix circuit lap record in a stunning climax to the Supercar Driver Secret Meet at Donington Park on Tuesday (5 July).
The British driver was behind the wheel of a 2004-era McLaren Mercedes MP4-19 F1 car, a machine designed by his father Adrian.
Newey had several stints in the car across the day, with his unofficial time of 1m16.83s being well inside the official lap record of 1m17.707, set by Japanese driver Kimiya Sato in an Auto GP race in 2013.
The Ignition GP F1 sessions were part of the SCD Secret Meet event at the circuit, an exclusive supercar extravaganza which encompassed huge display areas as well as multiple track sessions for rare and extreme machinery.
Several star names from the world of motorsport were in attendance including Adrian Newey, who also drove the McLaren as well as a Leyton House machine, McLaren CEO Zak Brown, Jodie Kidd, Karun Chandhok, Le Mans-winner Guy Smith, influencer Shmee150 and several others.
Newey's lap record time came at the end of the day in the final Ignition GP session, and the 23-year-old, who has raced at the Le Mans 24 Hours, the DTM and Super Formula in recent years, reckoned there was even more time in the car, which was driven in period by Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard.
"That's incredible!" he said afterwards. "I wasn't even thinking about driving fast, I just wanted to enjoy myself and look after the car! So to be a lap record holder is pretty cool, I didn't think that this morning and certainly didn't think it when I was out there! Now we'll have to push harder and do it again I suppose!
"We had really short gear ratios in the car so we were hitting the rev limiter for ages down the straights in seventh gear. I'm sure if a professional F1 driver got in it they'd drive much faster than I can, and I left a lot on the table, I could definitely have pushed a lot harder there. I had to look after the car, there's not a lot of spares for one of these, so you don't want to put it in the wall!"
"It's been a long effort to get this car running, it didn't come as a complete running car, we had the engine and all the bits but it's been a struggle to make it run and Lanzante have been working flat out for four or five years to get it running. It's a credit to them and to have it out on track for them has been amazing. The biggest well done is to those boys for getting it going, because that wasn't easy!"
Click here to view the car in action at Donington Park.