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Honda Civic Type R Demolishes Times At Five Legendary Circuits In Europe

Honda is celebrating the success of its Civic Type R team, which embarked on a voyage this April to set benchmark times on several European circuits.
Honda Civic Type R 22 photos
Photo: Honda
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We are writing about reference times on the Silverstone GP track, Spa-Francorchamps, Monza, Estoril, and Hungaroring.

These tracks were selected after Honda already set a record time for front-wheel-drive cars with the Civic Type R on the Nurburgring Nordschleife last year, which has since been beaten by the VW Golf GTI Clubsport S.

So, the company enrolled four drivers to help it set these times: Matt Neal, Rob Huff, Norbert Michelisz, and Bruno Correia.

As with the Nurburgring record time, these benchmarks were set by professional racing drivers at the wheel of a standard production car. Honda insists that the vehicle received no mechanical modifications whatsoever to achieve the times posted in the press release.

We are writing about a time of 2 minute and 31.85 seconds on the Silverstone GP circuit, set by three-time BTCC champion Matt Neal. The second reference time was established by Rob Huff, who drove the Civic Type R at the Belgian track of Spa-Francorchamps and set a time of 2 minutes and 56.91 seconds.

The team’s next target was the Italian track at Monza, where Hungarian driver Norbert Michelisz achieved a time of 2 minutes and 15.16 seconds. Before sending the car to Hungaroring for Norbert to set a time on his home turf, Honda sent the Civic Type R to Portugal.

Once there, driver Bruno Correia was drafted and set a time of 2 minutes and 4.08 seconds. Correia replaced Tiago Monteiro after the latter suffered a nasty crash at the WTCC race in Germany.

Norbert Michelisz completed the successful run for Honda’s Civic Type R in June, last week, when they set a time of 2 minutes and 10.85 seconds around the Hungaroring. Michelisz won the WTCC race last year at this track driving the competition version of the Civic Type R. At the time, he was running for the independent team at Zengo Motorsport.
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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