The Grand Tour's Richard Hammond thanks doctors as he drives for first time since crash
'I’m back! Oh yeah. This feels better than the first time'
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Your support makes all the difference.Earlier this year, Richard Hammond was involved in a serious driving incident, ending with the former Top Gear presenter in a hospital with a fractured knee.
After almost two months of rest, Hammond has returned to the roads, posting footage of himself behind the wheel onto DriveTribe and thanking doctors for their help.
“I’m back! Oh yeah. This feels better than the first time. Better than being 17 and given the keys to my freedom. Because this time, I’m ready,” he said while driving down a leafy country lane.
“This is beautiful. Thank you, doctors, thank you. I shouldn’t even be sharing this moment, it feels too personal right now. I’m dressed but I feel like I’m not.
“This is where I’ve been all this time, in my head. I can go anywhere. Wales is over there, it’s got mountains in it. there’s a ghost I need to exercise, I’m going there. I am so happy.”
The 48-year-old was filming scenes for the second season of The Grand Tour in Switzerland when the initial incident occurred, leaving the vehicle in flames.
Speaking publicly about the crash, Hammond revealed that, after losing control of the car, he thought he was going to die.
"I was aware that I was up high, and that inevitably the car was going to come down," Hammond said. "And yeah, of course there was a moment of dread - 'Oh God, I'm going to die’.”
Fellow presenter Jeremy Clarkson previously said the second season of The Grand Tour could very well be delayed as a result of the crash.
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“I’ve been up since dawn, rewriting all of the scripts and ideas we had to accommodate the fact that Hammond can’t drive for the next few months,” he wrote.
Previously, Clarkson wrote an eye-witness account of the incident, saying he ‘genuinely thought Hammond was dead’ at one moment.
A spokesperson for The Grand Tour said in an official statement: “Richard was conscious and talking, and climbed out of the car himself before the vehicle burst into flames.
“He was flown by air ambulance to hospital in St Gallen to be checked over – revealing a fracture to his knee.
“Nobody else was in the car or involved in the accident, and we’d like to thank the paramedics on site for their swift response. The cause of the crash is unknown and is being investigated.”
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