Sean Edwards killed in Queensland accident

Sean Edwards, the leader of the Porsche Supercup Championship, has been killed following an accident at the Queensland Raceway circuit in Australia.

The 26-year-old Briton was instructing in a Porsche 996 GT3 alongside a 20-year-old man from Brisbane when the car left the circuit and hit a tyre bank.

Edwards was killed on impact with the tyre wall, with the car then bursting into flames with the driver still trapped inside.

Emergency services battled for three hours to remove the injured driver from the car before he was airlifted to hospital in Brisbane with serious injuries.

Having initially started his career in single-seaters, Edwards moved into sportscars with a number of British GT Championship outings in 2005 before switching to the new FIA GT3 European Championship the following season with Tech 9 - becoming the inaugural champion in the process.

After a season in the FIA GT Championship proper in 2007, Edwards then moved into the F1-supporting Supercup for the first time in 2008, winning on two occasions en-route to fifth in the standings.

Recent seasons have seen Edwards firmly establish himself as a front-runner in both the Supercup and the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany, with the Briton sitting 18 points clear in the Supercup this season with only the season finale - a double header in Abu Dhabi - left to run.

While Edwards was most commonly found behind the wheel of a Porsche, he also took two wins in the Dubai 24 Hours at the wheel of a Black Falcon-run Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, and was part of the same team's line-up that took top honours in the Nurburgring 24 Hours earlier this year.

Edwards had also been involved in the hit film Rush, where he took on the role of his father Guy.

All at Crash.net extend our deepest sympathies to Sean's family and friends at this difficult time.

The video below shows Sean doing what he did best in challenging wet conditions at the famed Nurburging Nordscheife during the Porsche World Cup event in 2011