Porsche factory driver Timo Bernhard has smashed the long standing lap record of the Nurburgring Nordschleife, set in 1983 by Steffan Bellof.

Bellof achieved the previous record in the mighty Group C Porsche 956 when he claimed pole position for the 1000k Sports Car race.

Bernhard took on the challenge of beating the time, set by his childhood hero in the Porsche 919 Evo and after a quick warm up lap returned to the pits to get ready for a proper run.

With the target time of 6:11.13, Bernhard set an impressive time of 5:24:375 on his first flying lap, smashing the previous record.

This wouldn’t be enough for the German and the Porsche team as they would go out for another run, this time beating its own record with a time nearly five seconds quicker of 5:19:546, with an average speed of 145.68mph over the 12.93 mile circuit.