Any time a production car cracks the seven minute-lap barrier at the legendary Nürburgring circuit, it's a big deal. Only a select few street legal cars have ever done it - the Porsche 918 being a notable recent addition - and now McLaren has added its name to a very short list thanks to the sub-seven minute lap posted by test driver Chris Goodwin (pictured, below right) behind the wheel of the new P1. While the British marque has confirmed the time begins with a six, the specific time has yet to be disclosed. With bragging rights and both personal and professional pride on the line, the lack of disclosure on McLaren's part isn't too surprising.

Here's the official statement:

The McLaren name was born on the racetrack and, 50 years on, is the most successful name in global motorsport. That desire and determination to push for every extra tenth of a second, and obsessive focus on perfection, has seen the final development objective for the now sold out McLaren P1 achieved: a sub-seven minute lap time of the Nürburgring circuit.

From the outset, the McLaren P1 has been developed with one clear goal: to be the best driver’s car on both road and track. To achieve this, the development programme has focussed on ensuring the McLaren P1 pushes the boundaries in terms of sheer performance, with testing carried out in some of the harshest conditions around the world. But one challenge remained, and that was arguably the toughest of them all.

20.8 kilometres driven at an average speed in excess of 178 km/h. Sounds easy, until you add in more than 150 corners, 300 metres of elevation changes and cornering forces of up to 2g. All in less than seven minutes…

Commenting on the sub-seven achievement by the McLaren P1, McLaren Formula 1 driver and 2009 world champion Jenson Button said: "The fact that the McLaren P1 has posted a sub-seven minute lap at the Nürburgring is unbelieveably impressive."

"I've been an F1 driver for 14 years, and I've driven more than 240 Grands Prix and, although I've never raced an F1 car on the Nürburgring-Norschleife circuit, because the last time the German Grand Prix was held there was before I was born, I know exactly how challenging, and daunting, a racetrack it is."

"Over the past dozen-or-so years I've owned a lot of ultra-high performance road cars. I've driven the McLaren P1 on a number of occasions - including up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it was sensational - and I think it's a truly superb maching: unbelievably refined yet unbelievably quick."

"But as I say, for it to have recorded a sub-seven minute lap time around the Nürburgring is icing on the cake: proof  positive, backed by hard data, on the greatest racetrack of them all, that McLaren has created a genuine game-changer."

Photography by McLaren Automotive Limited