The British driver Sean Edwards has been killed in an accident during a private test at Queensland Raceway in Australia. The 26-year-old was in a Porsche 996 as a passenger when it hit the barriers at the circuit on Tuesday. He had been leading the drivers' championship of the Porsche Supercup series, all of the races for which take place at Formula One events.

Edwards is understood to have been killed instantly when the car left the track and impacted with a tyre wall on the outside of turn six at the track in Ipswich, 25 miles west of Brisbane. The driver was extracted from the wreckage, which had caught fire, by emergency services and was taken to intensive care with life-threatening injuries.

It is understood it took three hours to remove the driver from the car. Inspector Dave Preston of Queensland police said it had been a difficult operation to get the man out of the mangled wreckage: "The fire and rescue had to do extensive work in relation to extracting and opening the vehicle up sufficiently to remove him. He was trapped for some time."

The driver, who has yet to be named, was a 20-year-old Brisbane man. His family were understood to be trackside at the time. He was pinned from the waist down in the wreckage for three hours after the crash took place at 11.30am, after which he was airlifted to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.

Edwards was the son of Guy Edwards who competed in Formula One and the 24 Hours of Le Mans during the 1970s and 1980s and was one of the drivers who helped remove Niki Lauda from his burning car at the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.

Sean Edwards won the European GT3 Championship in 2006 and gone on to race in the FIA GT Championship, the American Le Mans Series, the Le Mans 24 hours and the Porsche Supercup and Porsche Supercup Germany series. He finished third in a Porsche in the GT2 class at his very first 24 hour race, at Spa in 2007.

Having won the Dubai 24 Hours last year he did so again in 2013 and was also a winner for the Black Falcon team at the Nürburgring 24 this year and took the Long Beach round of the American Le Mans series in the GTC class.

Racing for the Allyouneed by Project 1 team in this year's Porsche Supercup, he had victories in Spain, Monaco and Hungary and was leading the championship by 18 points with two races at Yas Marina due to have taken place on 2-3 November.

He had also recently taken part in the making of the film Rush, recounting the 1976 F1 battle between James Hunt and Niki Lauda, advising on the racing scenes and in some parts portraying his father.

The crash comes just five months after another death at Queensland Raceway. In June a 23-year-old motorbike rider was killed when he hit the back wheel of another rider.