Jeremy Clarkson wells up during final episode of The Grand Tour: "The show as you know it is ending, and that's very upsetting for us"

However, this isn't the end of the show for good: the trio will be returning next year with a series of Grand Tour road trip specials.

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Clarkson welled up during the closing studio segment of this year's season finale, released on Friday 12th April.

Looking around the cheering audience in tears, he said, "Tell you what though, we haven't had some laughs."

“In all of the years we’ve worked together, every single time one of us fell over, there was never any sympathy," he added. "We just burst into laughter straight away.”

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As he bid goodbye to the studio audience, Clarkson said, "We do have some good news. We’re not stopping.”

May added, "The truth is, Amazon loves us. We love Amazon, so we’ll carry on a bit.”

Clarkson, who turned 59 the day before the episode was released, said that while it was "upsetting" to be shelving the format of the past three years, the show itself would continue.

“The show as you know it is ending and that’s very upsetting for us: the audience and this sort of thing and the track," he told the audience in the tent. "But who’d like to see us doing more big adventures? Road trips? Specials?”

Clarkson's daughters and Hammond's family were all in the audience for the final studio recording according to Amazon.

Hammond said of the upcoming specials, “There is still so much of the world we haven’t been to.”

“So many people I haven’t insulted!” Clarkson added.

“So many cars Richard hasn’t crashed!” May joked.

Clarkson concluded, “So although the tent has gone, The Grand Tour goes on.”

The 14th and final episode of The Grand Tour season three features a tribute to the Ford saloon, an episode that Clarkson said he put his "heart and soul" into writing.

Season four will be made up of a series of road trips and adventure specials, similar to the Mongolia special seen during season three according to producer Andy Wilman.

"After the Mongolia adventure there will be one more conventional show, the finale for this series," he told RadioTimes.com. "Then we’re pulling down the curtain on the studio-based episodes so that we can just concentrate on big Specials. If Mongolia is anything to go by, we’ll be okay."

Along with a fourth season of The Grand Tour, all three presenters will also work on solo TV projects with Amazon Prime Video.

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May was the first to announce his series, a travelogue from Japan. Filming is currently underway.

Clarkson meanwhile has previously told Radio Times that he has enough ideas for five more series of The Grand Tour.

"I have no plans at all for after The Grand Tour. God, no," he said ahead of season three. "I never run out of ideas. Someone asked me, before this series, ‘What can you possibly do with a car that you haven’t already done?’ But my head’s filled with enough ideas for five years.”