Top Gear hosts banned from driving in France

All presenters of the BBC’s Top Gear who are not nicknamed Captain Slow have been banned from driving in France. Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond were allegedly caught driving on French motorways doing over 87 mph in a zone limited to 56. 

According to Clarkson’s column in The Sun last month, he and Hammond’s piloting of an Aston Martin Vanquish and a Porsche GT3, respectively, were seen as in fact very disrespectful by the gendarmes.

Apparently, members of a new French anti-speeding team were waiting for the duo as they approached a tollbooth, fining them on the spot for the convenient sum of everything they had in their wallets and issuing a three-month ban on driving in France for each of the British TV hosts, effective immediately.

Though most French highways have a max limit of 81 mph, the pair failed to notice that they’d entered a 56 mph section. Clarkson and Hammond were picked up by their camera crew, who drove them and the two cars home.

We’re sure this is just a coincidence, but Clarkson’s revelation comes just as the very footage they were filming is prepping for release. The annual Top Gear DVD, titled The Perfect Road Trip, goes on sale Monday.