It's true. The Honda Civic Type R is the fastest front-drive sedan to ever lap the Nurburgring Nordschleife, but now the company says it has the lap records at another legendary Grand Prix circuit. Honda's World Touring Car driver, Esteban Guerrieri, took the hot Civic to the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in France and proceeded to smash the lap record for front-drive production cars by nearly five seconds.

His 2:01.5 lap bests the 2:06.4 set by the old Civic Type R along with embarrassing the more powerful, all-wheel-drive Ford Focus RS. Of course, the FWD lap record falls laughably short of the circuit's overall lap record, a 1:15.37 set by Michael Schumacher during the 2004 French Grand Prix. "The best thing about the Type R is that it gives you confidence. It's very responsive and gives you good feedback. People call the Type R the ultimate performance hot hatch and we proved today that it really is; the car continues to push the boundaries of what's possible from front wheel drive," said Guerrieri, who pilots a Civic TCR in the World Touring Car Cup.

Look for more records to fall over the next six months as Honda sets out on the Type R Time Attack Challenge, which aims to set a series of lap records in the hot little box. The previous Type R set benchmark times at Estoril, Hungaroring, Silverstone, and Spa. Expect that Honda will aim to take down its own records first before potentially branching out to more ambitious circuits. Do I hear Suzuka anyone?