Grand Tour’s James May breaks silence over 70mph crash that left him needing brain scan & admits he nearly ruined series

RICHARD Hammond has spoken about James May’s Grand Tour mega-smash for the first time – accusing him of stealing his act.

The Sun told last month how James, 59, had been rushed to ­hospital after careering into a wall at 75mph when a driving challenge went wrong in Norway.

And thrill-seeker Richard, 52, says high-speed crashes are the third trait James has pinched off him since they teamed up with Jeremy Clarkson to take over hosting the BBC’s Top Gear in 2003.

In an exclusive interview, Richard said: “It is interesting that James is ­taking up the crashing, because when he joined Top Gear I was always wearing really vibrant loud shirts.

“And then James joined and did the same and I thought, ‘Well, we can’t both do that.’ So I stopped. I just wore ordinary shirts.

“And then he’s recently grown a little goatee.

“And now he’s taken the only thing I had left, which was crashing.

“It’s very flattering that he would consider that level of impersonation, but I’ll let him have that.

“I might keep my little beard, even though he’s now got one. He can have the crashing.”

James — nicknamed Captain Slow by co-stars Richard and Jeremy, 62 — was rushed to hospital for a brain and back scan after filming a dangerous drag-style race for their hit Prime Video series.

Speeding along a tunnel towards a rock wall at an old naval base, he braked too late and veered into the wall, ­leaving him bloodied and bruised.

Richard added: “It was a moment of singular lack of judgment on James’s part. He’s not that well strapped together.

“He once told me, ‘Hammond, exercise makes you stupid’, so he doesn’t do any at all.

“He’s sort of held together with bits of cotton and sponge. So it was a hell of an impact. It’s pretty ­dramatic. And I was surprised that all his limbs didn’t just fall off.”

The bloodied star was helped out of his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 by paramedics, then taken to hospital.

James had to abandon filming while Jeremy and Richard continued their Arctic Circle trip.

The smash had echoes of Richard’s 2006 crash, when the 288mph jet-powered car he was driving spun out of control after a tyre burst, while filming for Top Gear.

Richard suffered serious head injuries and was in hospital for five weeks.

And in 2017 the star cheated death again in another horror crash.

He was driving a £2million supercar in Switzerland when he lost control, and it flipped and burst into flames.

He somehow escaped with just a fractured knee.

So will the show’s insurance ­premium be even higher now James is getting in on the crashing act?

Speaking for the first time since the incident, James told The Sun: “I think the main contributor to the high cost of insuring us is Hammond.

“Say the insurance premium was £100, for argument’s sake — it would be £5 for me, £6 for Jeremy and £89 to insure Richard Hammond.

‘Fart-ar*ing around’

“It was a strange lapse of ­character on my part. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was trying to win, but I don’t normally care about that either. Maybe it was too much reindeer meat. Or air pressure.

"But it’s still going to be mainly Richard Hammond. When I have a crash, I destroy a car that’s worth £15,000.

"When Hammond has a crash he writes off a £1million ­protoype. That’s the difference — I know not to overdo it.”

Explaining the smash, he said: “I must have left ­braking a fraction too late. As soon as I knew I needed to stop, I realised I wasn’t going to do it.

"I think you can see from the footage that I should try to hit (the wall) sideways and not hit any ­people or cameras on tripods. I knew I’d f***ed it up.”

The trio had been embarking on their first post-pandemic road trip, travelling to the Scandinavian Arctic Circle.

The episode, The Grand Tour Presents: A Scandi Flick, sees them take to the wheel of their three favourite rally cars, from the coast of Norway to the Russian Border.

James said recently that he was “quietly contemplating” retirement, as he approaches his 60th birthday next year.

So does that mean the end of the legendary trio is near?

James said: “I’m a bit conflicted. I don’t want to outstay my welcome which so many people do, not only on television but also at parties, and in pubs late at night, in marriages.

“And I have to acknowledge that I am much older than I think I am.

“I’ve largely made my living fart-ar*ing about and that becomes undignified beyond a certain point.

“I don’t want to stop, and I enjoy what I am doing but I want to be adult and self-aware to know I should stop. But I bet you a million pounds that I outstay my welcome.

“No one lands it successfully, they fly it into the cliff.”

Richard agrees, and says if one of the trio calls it a day, it’s probably the end of the show as we know it.

He added: “We’ve proven that we’re better when we stick together.

“We need all of us. That includes [producer] Andy Wilman — because he is one ingredient without which you absolutely could not do this show. He is the master storyteller.

“We are beholden to all of us being there.”

• The Grand Tour presents: A Scandi Flick launches on Prime Video on ­September 16.