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Watch a Seat Leon Cupra keep up with a McLaren P1 and a Yamaha R6

We doubt The Grand Tour or Top Gear will put a Seat hatchback in the ring with McLaren’s flagship P1 hypercar, but you can watch them do battle at the Nurburgring.

The video shows the driver of a souped-up Seat Leon Cupra blasting around the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit before happening upon the McLaren P1 and its menacing rear lights. At this point the driver does petrolheads a favour by trying to keep up.

Turns out, the driver ─ who goes by the YouTube username xthilox ─ has been around the German track a few times, whereas the McLaren P1 driver is perhaps a newbie, worried about crashing a car worth over £950,000, or a bit of both.

The mid-sized Spanish hatchback stays hot on the tail of the British hypercar, allowing us to see the P1 spew out flames and blast away on the straights like its tail was stationary ─ as you would expect from a car with 904bhp and a top speed of 217mph.

Eventually the McLaren P1 driver admits defeat and lets the Leon Cupra pass, at which point you would think the fun is over. But you would be wrong because at the 4:34 mark a biker with balls the size of melons rides past on what we think is a Yamaha R6.

Driving fast around the Nurburgring is a challenge in itself, especially as the public can use it as they see fit and it is hardly the smoothest tarmac surface, plus it goes on for over 12 miles. Imagine, then, what it is like for a two-wheeler.

No roll cage, mind-bending acceleration, having to physically lean into bends at well over 100mph? That takes envious levels of dedication. Somehow the Leon Cupra keeps up the whole way, punching well above its weight, although that is partly down to the level of traffic.

As we said earlier, the 2015 Leon Cupra has been tweaked a bit, with KW Clubsport 3-Fach suspension, roll cage, Dunlop Direzza tyres and a few other additions making it more of a track weapon than an everyday driver. Thank the car gods for on-board cameras, eh?

Video: McLaren P1 vs Seat Leon Cupra vs Yamaha R6

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