New Top Gear increasingly good, says James May

The latest series of the BBC motoring show - fronted by Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid after Chris Evans bowed out - ended in April.

May, 54, told BBC Breakfast he had "tried to be quite philosophical about" the end of his run on the programme with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond.

"What we've ended up with is us refreshing ourselves a bit and having a bit of a rethink about how we do it, making space for some other people to take over our old programme," he said, "where they're doing an increasingly good job of it.

"I do think that the viewers now have two shows to watch, where they had one before. We can spark off each other a bit."

The Grand Tour host added: "I don't really see that anybody loses out."

Clarkson was sacked by the BBC for an "unprovoked physical and verbal attack" on a Top Gear producer.

Patrick Holland, controller of BBC2, recently said the show with its current presenter line-up could not be compared to its previous incarnation with Clarkson, May and Hammond.

"You're looking at two completely different shows," he said.

"We have turned over a new leaf. It's a new team. Chris and Rory have been fantastic and Matt has been terrific in the films and he's really started to enjoy the studios more and more.

"The audience is younger. Young people really love the new Top Gear."