Matt LeBlanc commits his first 'Top Gear' faux-pas

Well, that didn't take long.

Even though BBC's Top Gear has an all-new cast, they're carrying on an old tradition: Causing offense. (Bear in mind, the show isn't even due back on the air until May.)

Matt LeBlanc was riding shotgun Sunday with a fellow American, rally driver Ken Block, as he performed donuts near the Cenotaph, Britain's most revered war memorial, located in central London. Bystanders complained and retired army officer Col. Richard Kemp labeled the stunt "gravely disrespectful."

His co-host, Chris Evans, apologized Monday for the faux-pas, admitting it was "unwise" to film there.

Even though photos made it look as though LeBlanc's car was closer to the memorial than it actually was, Evans empathized with those upset by the stunt.

"On behalf of the Top Gear team and Matt, I would like to apologize unreservedly for what these images seem to portray.”

But at least one person says the show shouldn't have had to apologize in the first place.

In a column for the Guardian, Jonathan Jones wrote, "This stern sentinel is a mighty container of memory. It is not, however, a place of hushed reverence – except on Remembrance Sunday. How can it be, located as it is on a busy street in the heart of a capital city? ... Top Gear can’t possibly have intended this offense, which surely exists only in the imaginations of a few excessively sensitive souls. It makes no sense to complain, in effect, that someone has driven a car in central London."

He added, "Liberty means taking liberties. Whitehall needs to be desecrated from time to time precisely because it is the heart of government. Top Gear didn’t actually desecrate anything – but the demand for an apology for what was clearly just a bit of TV fun, and the prompt, fawning way it has been given, is a sad day for British freedom."