Last night saw the return of the best motoring show on television – Top Gear. And the trio of Clarkson, Hammond and May wasted no time in returning to the crazy stunts, fantastic cars and edgy humour. Here are our highlights from last night’s show (Spoiler free).
Clarkson scares some ducks
The centre piece of the show was one of the famous Top Gear challenges. This one was a revisit of a race across London that the team carried out by car, public transport, bike and boat. This time they made their way to St Petersburg, Russia to engage in the four way race. May was travelling by car, taking charge of a Renault Twizy. Hammond was on a fancy £9,000 Tour de France level bike. The Stig took public transport, menacing his way across tram and metro. And Clarkson took to the waterways in a “hovervan”, where our first highlight comes from.
Getting to grips with the unwieldy hovercraft, Clarkson floated straight into a patch of reeds, sending some ducks flying frantically for their lives.
Hammond goes flying
During the race, Hammond was going well, engaging in a close battle with May as traffic lights kept the race even. Until they reached some tramlines. Not paying attention, Hammond rode his bike onto the tracks, crashing painfully onto the floor and breaking his £9,000 bike. It may have hurt, but it was definitely funny.
Click here to see the fall in motion!
Luckily, Hammond was able to borrow a bike from a kind young cyclist and continue the race.
Hammond and the Huracan
Back in control of something a little more to his liking, Hammond took to the Top Gear airfield to give the new Lamborghini Huracan a spin. And it certainly looked fantastic, the £190,000 car cruising around the track and quickly racing to the top of our “Most Wanted” list.
Sheeran buys someone a Porsche
Star in a reasonably priced car this week was Ed Sheeran. Having never sat in a driver’s seat before, Sheeran was the first star to have never driven a car before appearing on Top Gear. “So many seventeen year olds around the world would want the Stig to teach them how to drive, and that’s sort of what happened.” Despite his lack of experience and the wet conditions, Sheeran managed to complete the track in a reasonable time.
But Sheeran really impressed with a story of how he had given one of his sound engineers a Christmas bonus. Having always professed his love for one car in particular, Sheeran surprised him with a Porsche 911 Carrera. Selling out Wembley stadium, global superstar, and an incredibly decent human being? Sheeran seems to be the real deal.
Episode one is available on BBC iPlayer: Click here to watch the episode.
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