Geared up to return
Hammond can’t rule out hit show reprise after Grand Tour
RICHARD Hammond has not ruled out a return to Top Gear for himself, James May and Jeremy Clarkson.
Hammond, 54, was speaking ahead of today’s release of their penultimate episode of The Grand Tour, Sand Job.
The trio revealed the Amazon Prime series was coming to an end last year but Hammond said they had made the decision “a long time ago”.
Asked if they might consider a return to the BBC series they left in 2015 after Clarkson punched a producer, Hammond laughed: “I don’t know. I have no doubt Top Gear will come back one day. Somebody will pick it up and run with it. It’ll be a different show.”
Hammond said there was no chance of Top Gear staying off air after BBC bosses decided to rest it following Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff ’s accident.
The ex-cricketer, 46, was badly injured in a crash during filming in December 2022 when he was co-presenter with Paddy Mcguinness and Chris Harris.
Hammond added of the show: “It’s been taken off-air and put back on many times before. They rest it. I’m sure somebody will take it up.”
Having had two near-death crashes himself while on Top Gear, Hammond says he takes safety very seriously.
He said: “We probably know better than most that no matter how many precautions you take, accidents can still
happen and things can still go wrong, and they do. It’s then about how wellprepared are you to deal with it once the worst has happened, once it has gone wrong, if you have everything in place to cope with it.”
Hammond said he, May and Clarkson have failed to grow up, laughing: “I think we’re still the same three we each were when we were about 12.”
He said their strong relationship proved helpful as they filmed Sand Job in the intense heat of Mauritania in west Africa. The trio drive modified sports cars across the Sahara, following the route of the Paris-dakar rally.
Hammond said: “It was great to be back out somewhere a bit tough. We couldn’t fall back on our incredible crew to capture a remote or hostile place.
“We had to fall back more on the relationship between us three and the banter and the nonsense.”
He said when the trio do argue it is only about cars. He said: “I know how to push their buttons. They know how to push mine. We’re passionate about what we do. If we’d all really fallen out we couldn’t do the job, could we?”
On the Grand Tour ending, Hammond said: “We decided a long time ago. The one thing we wanted to be in control of is deciding when and where and how we landed.”
Sand Job is on Prime Video now.