Richard Hammond knew that he was going to quit Top Gear

Los Angeles - Richard Hammond knew almost straight away he was going to quit Top Gear after Jeremy Clarkson was sacked.

The 45-year-old presenter has admitted he and James May decided almost immediately to stand by their long-time colleague after he was axed from their BBC motoring show for punching a producer in a row over a steak.

Richard said: "It all became a bit obvious past a certain point, you know, we do what we do and for whatever reason and whether you agree or not there are those that think we do it quite well, so it became obvious and I thought, well if we're going to carry on doing that, we'll do it together."

The Jungle Quest host also insisted he never for a moment attempted to fight with the BBC over their decision to sack Clarkson.

Speaking on Steve Wright in the Afternoon on BBC Radio 2, Richard explained: "At the age of 45 I have finally learnt, and accepted, and shared with those around me, that I am not a natural leader of men. I'm not a born general. I'm a very happy, very good foot soldier so I'd far rather somebody else blows a whistle and tells me what to do and then do it well."

And Richard insists that while his new Amazon Prime car show with Jeremy and James has given them the opportunity to get really creative, there's a lot of pressure on them to succeed.

Asked if Jeremy is his "general", he added: "No. Actually, no. In this instance there's a lot of other people.

"We've had a riotous year and we're now positioned somewhere where none of us would have expected to be a year, two years, three years ago - poised to reinvent ourselves, to be creative in a way we would never have been."