Porsche 718 Boxster lap time at Serres Racing Circuit

Indeed, but with the help of Sport Cup 2 tyres. :)

Still... that’s a base 300hp boxster for god sakes

Its a slow, handling track. The R8 was likely on Pzeros which are CONSIDERABLY worse than Cup 2s for dry grip. The power advantage the R8 has is reduced due to the slow nature of the track. Add to that the weight disadvantage of the R8 (200-300 kg aka non-negligeable) and this time makes more sense.

I do find it funny how porsche put tyres as aggressive as Cup 2s to improve the time on a standard version of a boxster. Not even the Boxster S.
99% of the cars sold will be driven on Michelin supersports or Pirelli Corsas, not Cup 2s.

All this really tells us is that the chassis of the Boxster is better than the old R8. Which is no surprise since even the new R8 V10 + is way behind the competition handling-wise.

First of all, Serres is not what I'd call a slow track. The best road cars reach more than 200 km/h on its main straights, and carry more than 145 in its fastest turn. Well, OK, compared to an F1 track, it's slower.

The R8 V10 Coupe was on OEM P Zeros, and it just did a couple of laps because it had to do a road trip with the same tyres afterwards...
The R8 V10 Spyder had Michelin PSS fitted specifically for a track test. Thus it did more laps, and managed to post a better time than the Coupe (which surely must seem a bit weird if you don't know these facts).

Now, about the Boxster: It wasn't Porsche that put Cup2 tyres on the car, but Michelin, which was the sponsor of that track test. We (Drive Magazine) always wanted to try a car on these tyres, so that was a great opportunity.

Oops! Forgot to log in, but the above comment was indeed made by me. :)