McLaren 720S Nordschleife lap: Time For Coffee?

Sportauto's resident superstar finally gets his hands on the Super Series - can it match those pesky Porsches?

While Nurburgring lap times are nothing new, seeing a McLaren lap the Nordschleife is pretty significant. That's because, while McLaren does use the track for testing, it has famously never published a lap time - even when the P1 was rumoured to have lapped in less than seven minutes.

So here we have a standard 720S at the circuit everyone has an opinion on, running a Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyre (i.e. something less sticky than the Trofeo R offered on the 600LT, or Michelin's Cup 2R) and sportauto's ever-entertaining Christian Gebhardt behind the wheel. The conditions could hardly be better, the lap set in the late afternoon of a June day (why it's taken until now to be published we're not sure) and the driving as near-to-flawless as ever.

The result? Are you sure you want to know? Last chance to look away now... The 720S lap time is 7 minutes and 8 seconds, or 7:08.34 to be precise. In the sportauto rankings that put the car ahead of an AMG GT R (7:10.92), 488 GTB (7:21.63) and Corvette Z06 (7:13.90), but behind the Huracan Performante (only just though, with 7:07.99), and the two Rennsport Porsches - 7:05.41 for the GT3 RS and 6:58.28 for the GT2.

Various theories abound in the comments about just why that is, with tyres cited as the chief contributing factor. Still, that close to seven minutes on a 'regular' tyre is nothing to turn your nose up at, and makes for a video well worth watching. Bring on that faster, lighter, grippier Longtail...