Call me a cynic but I reckon it's all deliberate on Clarksons part. They're all nearly out of contract, this way he manages to get fired (negating non-compete clause in his contract), then sues for wrongful and wins £s. He's now free to go his own way do his own thing which he's already got in the pipeline. what's the betting they all come back to our screens (itv,Sky, whoever) with a world first special of the much hyped la Ferrari vs. p1 vs. 918 comparison, to blow ratings out of the water.
Also, as a point, he doesn't hate japs and love Germanics - he's always banging on about how great Honda are (were) and how ******* porsche are. Think he just genuinely likes cars. At the risk of controversy on this site, perhaps our lexus's are not as good to drive as bmw, Mercedes equiv and as a journalist, he's just pointing that out. We just like them for different reasons; for me it's value for money and reliability.