TOP Gear's Jeremy Clarkson has confirmed that Ben Collins, the man who plays The Stig has been "sacked" and that he'd been "hurt" by the F3 driver's actions.

Talking for the first time about the controversy, Clarkson also hinted The Stig might return to the show in a different guise to the white-suited, black-visored character viewers have grown to love and branded Collins as "greedy".



Presenter Clarkson was talking for the first time about Collins outing himself as The Stig in his autobiography after hosting a charity auction at Chipping Norton Lido in Oxfordshire, the Daily Mail reports.



In an interview with local community website Witney TV which went live today, Clarkson said of Collins going public: "You may remember a film called Wall Street in which Gordon Gekko said greed was good and greed works.



"It doesn't, if you're watching this children, greed is bad, he's just decided he'd rather be ... put it this way, he's history as far as we're concerned, he's sacked."



As for the 'rebirth' of The Stig, Clarkson teased: "Trust me, we have many, many thousands of people queueing up to be whatever it is we create.



"I've spent the last three weeks doing nothing but trying to work out what to do instead."



However, he joked of his fellow hosts: "Richard (Hammond) can't drive and James (May) is too slow. We'll get somebody, don't you worry. Top Gear is damaged but not out."



Clarkson also joked that he'd like a certain David Cameron to give it a bash, the Prime Minister being the local MP for Witney.



In seriousness, Clarkson said however he'd been 'shocked' by Collins' betrayal.



He opined: "It was horrible actually, because I liked him and he came round to my house and had drinks and all that time he was writing a book."



The BBC failed last week to have an injunction granted to stop Collins from publishing his autobiography, in which he reveals he was indeed The Stig, who anonymously test drives cars and prepares celebrities for the show's Star In a Reasonably Priced Car section of the show.

Originally published as Top Gear: The Stig's 'sacked'