1:01 pm, November 30, 2016
THE Grand Tour hosts Richard Hammond and James May were surprise guests at the SMMT annual dinner last night.
The duo opened proceedings held at Grosvenor House in central London, at what was the SMMT’s 100th end-of-year event.
After leaving Top Gear in 2015, the pair followed Jeremy Clarkson to their latest venture, The Grand Tour, which was plugged throughout their time on stage.
@MrJamesMay and @RichardHammond made surprise appearance at #SMMTAnnualDinner pic.twitter.com/4Oxdlmp2LK
— Jack Healy (@jack_healy19) November 29, 2016
Hammond and May both said they were delighted to attend, as they both wanted to acknowledge their support for the ‘thriving British motoring industry’, which had helped them become so passionate about cars in the first place.
Later on in their speech, Hammond said he wanted to ‘gingerly’ creep around the subject of Brexit, which drew laughter from the audience as a reference to former Top Gear host Chris Evans.
The duo congratulated the audience, which was filled with the country’s best and brightest from the motoring industry, and said: ‘We wouldn’t be in the position we are in without your hard work, production and skills, because then we wouldn’t have anything to talk about, and we love the cars you make.
‘You should all be immensely proud of your work throughout the last year.’
Please don’t touch the cars… oh go on then. #SMMTAnnualDinner pic.twitter.com/SxP8O6aLvH
— SMMT (@SMMT) November 30, 2016
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