has made fun of his pal ’s memory after he was involved in two serious car accidents while filming Top Gear.
The 52-year-old presenter kicked off his new comedy science panel show, Brain Reaction, on Comedy Central this Wednesday, which sees team captains comedian Johnny Vegas and broadcaster compete for points by answering a series of brain teasers and challenges.
Hammond was previously mocked by his co-star for having ‘no capacity to remember anything’ following two near-fatal car crashes, but now he’s hit back at his 61-year-old friend, insisting Clarkson’s ‘memory is also crap.’
Speaking in The Sun’s TV Biz column, Hammond said: ‘Jeremy’s memory is also crap, and that is because he is ancient. I can’t run up a hill because I’ve crashed a car upside down off a mountain in flames.
‘He can’t run up a hill because he’s fat.’
The TV star added: ‘He’s one to talk about not being able to do stuff; I can’t remember stuff because I was brain injured, he can’t remember stuff because he’s old.’
Hammond – who co-hosted BBC Two’s Top Gear from 2002 to 2015, alongside Clarkson and James May – in 2006 spent two weeks in a coma and sustained life changing brain injuries following a catastrophic car crash.
The near fatal accident, happened while filming an episode of Top Gear at the RAF Elvington airfield near York.
He was driving at 317mph in a Vampire dragster – a jet-powered car that can reach up to 370mph – when the front tyre of the car unexpectedly failed. This caused the car to violently flip and roll.
Hammond had to be rushed to hospital after being cut out with hydraulic shears.
Just over a decade later, whilst filming on Amazon’s The Grand Tour in Switzerland, his was involved in another accident where his car flipped and burst into flames.
He had to be airlifted to hospital, with Clarkson tweeting at the time that it was ‘the biggest crash I’ve ever seen and the most frightening.’
‘Incredibly, and thankfully, Richard seems to be mostly OK,’ he added.
Hammond suffered a fracture to his knee in the serious collision but, very fortunately, sustained no serious injuries.
