Hammond: Leaving TG was ‘obvious’

Richard Hammond knew almost straight away he was going to quit Top Gear after Jeremy Clarkson was sacked by the BBC back in March. The 45-year-old presenter has admitted he and James May decided almost immediately to stand by Clarkson after he was axed from their BBC motoring show for punching a producer in a row over a steak (or rather the lack of a steak).

Speaking on Steve Wright in the Afternoon on BBC Radio 2, Richard explained: “It all became a bit obvious past a certain point, you know, we do what we do and for whatever reason and whether you agree or not there are those that think we do it quite well, so it became obvious and I thought, well if we’re going to carry on doing that, we’ll do it together”

Richard also insisted he never for a moment attempted to fight with the BBC over their decision to sack Clarkson.

“At the age of 45 I have finally learnt, and accepted, and shared with those around me, that I am not a natural leader of men. I’m not a born general. I’m a very happy, very good foot soldier so I’d far rather somebody else blows a whistle and tells me what to do and then do it well.”

Richard also admitted that there’s a huge amount of pressure on the trio to succeed with their new Amazon Prime car show, although the opportunity has also given them the chance to get really creative and shake things up a bit.

“We’ve had a riotous year and we’re now positioned somewhere where none of us would have expected to be a year, two years, three years ago – poised to reinvent ourselves, to be creative in a way we would never have been.”