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Several F1 drivers have been on the popular automotive BBC TV show called Top Gear. They were interviewed and participated in a section of the show called "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car".
This part shows various celebrities, including F1 drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, doing hot laps in a regular car like Kia Cee'd and Suzuki Liana around Top Gear's track in Dunsfold Park, UK.
After the hot lap, the popular presenter Jeremy Clarkson reveals the lap time and places it on a leaderboard. Top Gear specifically has a leaderboard for all the F1 drivers featured on the show.
Here are the top 5 F1 drivers on the show.
Top five F1 driver hot lap timings on Top Gear
#5 Rubens Barrichello - 1:44.3
In 2010, former Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello arrived as a guest star in Top Gear's Season 15 Episode 3. He was driving for Williams after leaving Ferrari. Popular Harry Potter star Rupert Grint was also a guest.
Barrichello chose Suzuki Viana to drive around Top Gear's circuit and clocked in a 1:44.3, beating the show's mysterious character, The Stig 2, who was former racing driver Ben Collins. He became the first F1 driver to outpace the Stig on Top Gear. He held the fastest lap time by an F1 driver on the show but was soon beaten by a multiple world champion.
#4 Sebastian Vettel - 1:44.0
In 2011, Sebastian Vettel was invited to Top Gear as a guest in Season 17, Episode 3. He had won his first world championship with Red Bull and was on his way to winning his second in 2011.
In the episode, Vettel also took the Suzuki Viana and drove around the Top Gear track. He took a proper racing line around the first Turn, giving him an advantage over Rubens Barrichello's time. While driving the car, he joked he could drink a cup of tea before the next corner, hinting that the car was slow. He lapped the track in 1:44.0, 0.3 seconds faster than Barrichello, becoming the fastest F1 driver in Top Gear.
#3 Mark Webber - 1:43.1
In 2013, Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull teammate, Mark Webber, was featured in Top Gear and drove in Series 20, Episode 6's segment. This was the Australian's second attempt on the track with Suzuki Viana. Previously, he was a guest in the show in 2005 and drove the car on a wet and oily track. In dry conditions, the Australian beat Vettel's lap time by 0.9 seconds, with 1:43.1.
Webber and Vettel were teammates in Red Bull for five years, from 2009 to 2013. The four-time world champion mostly dominated Webber during their time as teammates, which brewed a fierce rivalry.
#2 Lewis Hamilton - 1:42.9
Lewis Hamilton has been on Top Gear twice and drove in the segment on both occasions. In his first attempt in Season 10 Episode 7, he clocked a 1:44.7 and secured third place in the leaderboard below The Stig, and another former world champion Nigel Mansell.
Fast forward to Season 19 Episode 4, the then-one-time world champion returned to Top Gear to do another lap in dry conditions with the same car, the Suzuki Viana. This time, he knocked it out of the park and clocked a blistering-fast lap of 1:42.9. This was 1.1 seconds quicker than Sebastian Vettel's time.
Hamilton had made a bold move from McLaren to Mercedes, one shocking to many. The Silver Arrows were struggling. However, after the power unit regulation changes in 2014, Mercedes became one of the fastest teams on the grid along with a good car and the British driver won the rest of his six world championships with it.
#1 Daniel Ricciardo - 1:42.2
Even though Lewis Hamilton is statistically quicker and more successful in F1, Daniel Ricciardo broke the Brit's lap time record in Top Gear. In 2015, the then-Red Bull driver was the special guest in the show's Season 22 Episode 3. Like every other top F1 driver, Ricciardo chose Suzuki Viana to go around the show's official track.
In the hot lap clip, the Australian expressed his excitement while driving a relatively slow car compared to his usual F1 machines. Ricciardo chose the racing line in most corners, shaving off some time from his lap, and finished it at 1:42.2, beating the multiple world champion Hamilton.
At the time, Ricciardo was racing alongside Daniil Kvyat in Red Bull, but the latter was soon replaced by Max Verstappen in 2016. Eventually, Ricciardo himself left the Austrian team and joined Renault in 2019.
