But it's not the first time Jeremy has courted controversy - check out our roundup of Jeremy Clarkson vs the world.

A broken thumb

In a Top Gear episode in 2004, the three presenters were tasked with finding a used car for under £100 and running it through a series of challenges.

James May bought an Audi, Richard Hammond bought a Rover with no stereo, and Jeremy Clarkson picked up an old Volvo.

And the final task was set to break the boundaries of each car’s sturdiness – or at least Jezza’s thumb.

All were required to accelerate to 30mph and then crash headfirst into a concrete wall to see which car would hold up.

James’ Audi went ploughing straight into it and died; Hammond’s Rover did the same. But the speedometer in Jeremy’s Volvo wasn’t working, and he overcooked the speed, slamming painfully into the concrete wall.

Amazingly, his Volvo just reversed out and carried on and got a big thumbs up – so much he broke the bone in it.

Clarkson eats his own hair

Jeremy Clarkson has big hair. But back in the 1980s when big hair was cool – Clarkson’s hair… was really, really big.

But in 2004, Jeremy realised just how big his hair actually is…

The Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch concept is a stunning looking machine, but Jeremy didn’t believe Vauxhall when they said the production version would look exactly the same.

When the presenters got hold of the new hatch in the studio, Jeremy told Hammond if the production model looked like the concept, he’d eat his own hair.

Jeremy lost, and celebrity chef Anthony Worrall-Thompson was on hand to serve up Clarkson’s mullet in an omelette.

Clarkson gets assaulted by an MG

When MG Rover rolled out their hardcore £75,000 Porsche 911 baiter, the world sat up and took notice.

And when Jeremy jumped behind the wheel of the fire-breathing 385bhp 5-litre V8 powered MG XPower SV he loved it – but the car didn’t love him back.

During the his road test, Jeremy was sliding the car around a bend when the rear wheels suddenly found their grip, catapulting Clarkson’s head against the roof – and Richard Hammond loved the footage so much he repeated the video on Top Gear three times.

View pictures of the ten fastest cars around the Top Gear test track

Clarkson pukes in a Prodrive

Engineering gods Prodrive – famous for tuning the Subaru Impreza and Mazda RX-8 – rolled out their own high-performance four-wheel-drive monster with the Prodrive P2.

Clarkson tested out the one-off prototype – built simply as an “engineering exercise” – and took it out on the Top Gear test track.

But as he spun the car around for a few laps he suddenly came over all ill – and promptly threw up while driving.

The ten fastest cars around the Top Gear test track

Jeremy knows nothing about cars

‘Waking the Dead’ star Trevor Eve was a guest on Top Gear in 2005 and managed to lap the Dunsfold test track in one minute 48 seconds - joining the power lap leaderboard along with F1 star Lewis Hamilton who lapped the Top Gear track in 2007.

But before his timed lap was shown, Trevor and Jeremy decided to have a spot of light banter – and following a few quips about Trevor’s car history, the Waking the Dead actor jibed straight back.

“You know nothing about cars!”

The audience erupted – and Jeremy’s face went red.

Clarkson gets lapped… by a girl

The Jaguar S-Type diesel is a fantastic car – good looks, decent handling and a frugal diesel engine means a car for all seasons.

Jeremy decided to see if the Jag could crack the mighty Nurburgring race track in Germany in less than ten minutes – and after endless testing laps, he finally crossed the finish post in nine minutes and 59 seconds.

But when Hammond claimed the ending was so close it was a little bit “Hollywood”, Clarkson’s Nurburgring tutor Sabine Schmidt laughed.

She grabbed the keys to the Jag and hustled it around the track – in nine minutes 12 seconds. And narrowly missed beating him again – in a Ford Transit Van.

Outwitted by art gallery directors

Clarkson, Hammond and May were all on a mission to find the best coupe on the market from the new Audi TT, the hot new Alfa Romeo Brera and the Mazda RX-8.

One of the challenges involved taking the cars to an art gallery and persuading the directors to showcase their car – which meant brushing up on a little history.

Jeremy promptly started talking about stripes, chairs, cubism… none of which made any sense, before going red in the face and sweating a lot.

Jeremy blows up his Porker

Could the team buy a decent Porsche for under £1,500?

The challenge was set – James bought a Porsche 944, Richard bought a Porsche 924, and Jeremy bought a V8-powered Porsche 928.

But as the chaps drove down to their final destination, Jeremy’s “bucket of bolts” blew up and forced him to veer into the side of the road – and as James pulled up alongside, his only words of condolence before leaving Jezza in the wind were: “Sorry mate.”

Eight V8s for under eight grand

Top gunge

Noel’s House Party was the light entertainment Saturday night programme for the early nineties, featuring a number of comical challenges – mostly involving gunge – while introducing the world to Mr Blobby.

And back in the early nineties, Top Gear star Clarkson was asked to appear on the hit programme – and was promptly sent through a car wash and gunged in front of a live audience.

Check out the video of Jeremy Clarkson on Noel's House Party below:

What is your favourite Jeremy Clarkson quote? Have your say on the Auto Trader Blog