Top Gear: Presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond removed from website banner

The BBC says move is to reflect fact that all three presenters are out of contract

Former Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond are rumoured to be talking to rival broadcasters (Getty Images)

The future for Richard Hammond and James May appears even more uncertain after their images were removed from the masthead of the Top Gear website.

Their former co-host Jeremy Clarkson was sacked as a presenter from the motoring show following what the BBC described in a report as an “unprovoked physical attack” on Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon.

The trio were previously featured at the top the site next to The Stig. The masthead image has since been removed and replaced by a picture of The Stig at the centre.

The Top Gear website on 28 March

Whether Hammond and May will continue to present the show remains unclear. The trio will still present a live world tour next month, but it will be stripped of all BBC branding and hosted under the name Clarkson, Hammond and May Live.

All three hosts have been removed from the website

It is not expected to use clips from the show or feature The Stig.

The director general of the BBC has said it will continue Top Gear without Clarkson, but May has previously hinted he too may follow his controversial co-host's departure from the show when he said “it would require a lot of careful thought” about whether to continue presenting without Clarkson.

“I think we’re very much the three of us as a package, it works for very complicated reasons that a lot of people don’t fully understand,” he said shortly after Clarkson was dropped from the show.

The BBC told The Daily Mail the removal of an image showing all three hosts was “simply reflect the fact that all three presenters are currently out of contract on the show”.