Top Gear Series 19 delayed until 2013?

Jeremy Clarkson recently did an interview with South African radio where he discussed all manner of things, including the start date for Season 19 of Top Gear.

The chat goes for around 11 minutes and starts off talking about Formula One, covering the show driving hot hatchbacks at the Monaco Grand Prix, dealing with Bernie Ecclestone and the forthcoming Ron Howard biopic Rush.

But it’s about 8 minutes in when Clarkson first mentions the return of Top Gear to our TV screens. Normally the show would start in the middle of the year, but with the 2012 Olympic Games on in London at that time that will be the focus of the BBC’s air time and resources.

Talking to the host, Sasha Martinengo, about the Top Gear Festival in South Africa (16–17 June) Clarkson commented that he’ll be happy working with Richard and James, “because there’s no [more] Top Gear on this year.”

So there you have it TG tragics, it looks like you’ll have to wait until 2013 for your next Top Gear fix.

You can watch/listen to the interview in full after the break. For good measure we’ve included the segment from 17×02 where the lads race around Monaco.

[Source: Final Gear]

UPDATE 9 May: Jeremy has now confirmed S19 will start in January.