First of all, how did you land the job at Top Gear?

I heard about the auditions from several people. I was chatting to Romain Ianetta and he advised me to have a go and persuaded me that it would be good for me. Two minutes later, I got a call from the casting director who wanted me to audition in Paris two days after. That wasn’t possible because I was in Australia at the time. There were other opportunities though, and I auditioned later. At the end, the director asked me to come back a few days later for the second stage. I went through all the stages, and every time, things went well. When they offered me the job, I was a bit hesitant because I’m not a trained presenter, but I decided to go for it, because it’s a great show. And I like trying new things and pushing my limits, so I accepted.

And you seem to be enjoying yourself...

Absolutely! It’s great fun. All three of us get on really well. (The other presenters are Le Tone and Philippe Lelouche, ed.) We became friends when we met during the auditions. We spend a lot of time together. Le Tone has spent weekends with me watching the driver I coach race in Formula Renault 3.5.They’re both real mates now. We have lots of laughs.

How did the shoot at the 24 Hours circuit go?

It went really well! It was great to have backing from both the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and Porsche. They spent a lot of time with us, lent us a gorgeous car (Bruce Jouanny tested a Porsche 918 Spyder in the programme, ed.) and give us free rein of the Circuit de la Sarthe. A big thank you to all involved because it was a huge undertaking. And it’s not every day you can use the circuit. I must admit I had a great time and everything went to plan.

We had a spot of rain on the day which didn’t make it easy going with road tyres and 900hp. To be honest, I did get a bit hot under the collar because we only did a couple of takes of each scene. Sometimes I eased off the second time round, so you can imagine how hair-raising the first take was! I also got to go on the Maison Blanche track, that I had never been on before, the Bugatti and the full circuit at night. We even had some spectators because news of the shoot travelled fast! At one point I got to the Mulsanne Corner and the roundabout was full of people. I had time to stop off and say hello to the crowd. They were really happy, and so was I. We had a truly amazing time.

David Bristol / ACO – Translated from French by Emma Paulay

With thanks to Bruce Jouanny.

Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT BUGATTI, NOVEMBER 2015. Bruce Jouanny in the Porsche 918 Spyder.