Courtney: F1 Drive was 'Better than Sex'

Driving a Formula One car for the first time ever has left James Courtney delirious. "It was magic, incredible, crazy. It was better than sex," the 21-year old Australian exclaimed, after testing with Jaguar yesterday at Monza. "I can't believe what I've just done. It has to be the best day of my life."

Courtney, who currently lies in third place in the British F3 Championship, is one of several young hopefuls looking for a test drive with a Formula One team next year. He finished yesterday's testing in eighth place, ahead of Benetton's Jenson Button, with a respectable time of 1:27.268 - some two seconds behind the fastest time of the day, set by Jordan's test driver Ricardo Zonta.

"The whole thing was phenomenal," Courtney said after the testing ended. "It was so much more than I expected. I was going down the straight at 354km/h - that's awesome. At that speed it's like driving down a tunnel, because the scenery blurs around you.

"I went past Panis into one of the chicanes. That was so cool. I did it myself. It wasn't like he slowed down or anything."

As for the future, Courtney remains cautious yet hopeful. "I'd like to think that I've shown some of the people that I can drive an F1 car," he said, "but I've still got a lot of learning to do. I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully everything will fall into place. I don't want to make any promises."