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Lotus today made 16-year-old Nabil Jeffri the youngest ever driver of a Formula 1 car, in a straight-line test at Duxford airfield.
The Malaysian teenager, who is currently fifth in this season's Formula BMW Pacific series completed aero testing and pitstop practice for the British team, with drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Fairuz Fauzy on hand to help out.
"I have had an incredible day, one of the best days of my life," he said. "I have to admit that the first time I went out it was pretty scary - everyone told me the acceleration would be unbelievable.
"It took a while to get used to that, but Heikki and Fairuz gave me some advice on how to settle in to it, and after a while I was more comfortable and was able to get through the day's plan.
"It's such an honour to have had this opportunity and it'll be a long time before the excitement wears off. I'll keep working hard to one day join Heikki, Fairuz, Jarno [Trulli] and the rest of the F1 grid."
Team boss Tony Fernandes added: "When I first offered Nabil the chance to drive our car, he couldn't tell if I was joking or not, but I was very serious about giving a young Malaysian the chance to step up to the big time.
"He's repaid my faith in him and has performed incredibly well, and that's a source of real pride for me. I suspect Nabil will head back to Malaysia with his head spinning from everything that's happened to him today. But now he can say he's driven an F1 car, and that will set his sights at the very top."
