What an interesting turn of events, while Chris Evans is still denying that he will take over from the dynamic trio that used to host Top Gear, he isn’t afraid to use the guys’ track and his own car to prove some points.
His show, TFI Friday, is currently undergoing an extensive change and last week, his guest was none other than Lewis Hamilton, that seems to be on a world tour these days, trying to improve his PR skills. After attending the Gumball 3000 Rally’s US leg, he travelled to the UK to see what Evans has to offer on his show.
Well, the presenter had his own Ferrari LaFerrari on the spot and he wanted to set a time around the famous Top Gear track so that we have at least one reference point in the future, to use in the never-ending debate. What do you mean ‘what never ending debate’? The one that has to establish which of the three hybrid hypercars we have today is the fastest.
As you might know, Jezza and his team-mates tried to get the three altogether on the track and pit them against each other to see exactly which one is fastest. However, various demands from the manufacturers made this contest impossible. The biggest issues came from Ferrari that wanted to use a factory car and then threatened its customers not to allow the show to use their cars in such endeavors.
The McLaren P1 was actually developed on that track and Porsche claimed that running against it on that particular circuit wouldn’t be fair to their 918 Spyder. Then McLaren agreed to a neutral circuit but Ferrari was unmoved in the end so nothing happened.
Well, Chris probably decided to just take things into his own hands and he invited Jason Plato, the presenter of Fifth Gear and BTCC racing driver to do him the honor of driving his own hypercar on the famous track.
The thing is, this couldn’t be counted as an official run, one that could be posted on the famous TG fastest lap times wall. That’s because, even though the car was on the right track, it wasn’t driven by the Stig. Sure, Jason is an absolutely brilliant driver but for comparison purposes, the helmet-wearing ‘knight’ should’ve been behind the wheel.
Therefore, the time Plato posted on the track was 0.4 seconds slower than a Pagani Huayra for example which was rather surprising, to say the least. Why? Because the Pagani has around 360 HP less and is considerably older than the Italian thoroughbred.
Leaving the drivers out of the equation, some say that the damp track was also to blame while the fact that they had it for only 15 minutes didn't help out that much either. Ok, Hamilton did say that should've been enough but we won't pass judgement here... All we know is that we’re pretty disappointed right now.
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