MELBOURNE: Marking the 20th year of Formula One in Melbourne, this weekend’s 2015 Australian Grand Prix culminates with Sunday’s main race.
The multi-circuit record holding Renault Megane RS275 Trophy-R has lapped Melbourne’s Albert Park Formula One circuit in 2:23.64 to become the first car of its kind to set a lap record of the Grand Prix track.
Still, as a record-setting Nurburgring hero and the product of a long-running Formula 1 player, the top-shelf Megane’s pace-setting time at Albert.
Hustling the track-focused street-legal two-seat Renault Megane RS275 Trophy-R around the 5.3-kilometre street circuit – at an average speed of 133km/h – was the 20-year-old team mate of Australia’s Infiniti Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo.
“It was a good car, nice to drive,” said Russian-born Daniil Kvyat
Praising the Nurburgring- and Suzuka circuit-crushing hatchback’s suspension, Kvyat said the Trophy-R felt “more sporty” than the standard Renault Megane RS.
“It is made for proper racing driving.”
Although the lap time is around one minute shy of Michael Schumacher’s 1:24.125 outright record set back in 2004 in his old Ferrari F1 car, the 201kW/360Nm turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder Megane RS275 Trophy-R can be had from $61,990 – albeit with local numbers limited to 50 cars.
Despite a range of road cars notching up laps of the Albert Park GP circuit over the years, Renault maintains this is the first time that a commercially available production vehicle under or up to 2.0-litres has set a timed lap of the much-loved track.
