A motorist with nerves of steel has broken a world record after driving at 206mph – on ICE.
Gutsy Janne Laitinen drove an Audi RS6 saloon car with specially studded tyres on the frozen Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea, Finland.
The Finnish rally driver had an eight mile (14km) stretch of ice just 70cm thick to accelerate the 572bhp Audi up to top speed while maintaining control on the ultra-slippery surface.
VIEW MORE IMAGES FROM THE RECORD ATTEMPT
He reached a speed of 206.5mph – covering a staggering 92 metres per second. At this speed and under this pressure, the diameter of the car’s tyres expanded by 2mm.
The speed beat the previous record of 205.48mph achieved by Bentley earlier this year.
Janne said: ”I feel really happy and excited to have been able to help Nokian Tyres to get the record.
”On that day the ice on the ice track was extremely slippery, much more so than usually and at the end of the track I was bumping my head to the sealing of the car because of the uneven surface.
”The only thing though I could focus on during the drive was the speed and the handling of the car.
”I have driven many times in extreme conditions close to 300 km/h during the normal test drives that we do, but this was something else.”