Freddie Flintoff: real speed of Top Gear crash revealed by insider

In December 2022, the former cricketer turned presenter suffered serious facial injuries and broken ribs when the car he was driving veered off the road at 130mph at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey.

Following the crash, filming for Top Gear was halted, and the Prestonian had been notably absent from the public eye up until last month.

However this week, a source has told the Mail on Sunday that the previously reported facts of the incident are not entirely true.

The source said: “People talk about this “high speed crash” but although the consequences were horrendous, it was no such thing.

“The car was actually going at 22mph when it flipped over. There is a lot of footage and it has been carefully looked at.

“I know that in the investigation the BBC has spoken to [manufacturers] Morgan and they have said that there was nothing wrong with the car.

“The Health and Safety executive have looked at it and found that the BBC have no case to answer and the BBC have investigated as well as they have been negotiating with Freddie’s team and trying to work out who is to blame.

“Freddie was not wearing a helmet but the situation is that he did not have to wear one.

“The car is road legal without a helmet – it has a halo safety device – and he was on a private track.

“They had only just set off and were on the first corner when the car flipped and he scraped his face along the tarmac.”

The crash happened whilst the BBC was filming the second of five shows which were to make up Top Gear’s 34th series.

Following the incident, the whole series was reportedly scrapped at a cost of over £5million, and the source also told the Mail that “‘People have been made redundant on the grounds that it is not coming back for the foreseeable future.”

An investigation involving the accident is still ongoing and there has been no news as to when the show may return.

Earlier this month, various national newspapers reported that Top Gear was about to be cancelled by the BBC but this week, a BBC spokesperson denied this.

The spokesperson said: “A decision on the timing of future Top Gear shows will be made in due course with BBC Content.”