Same here, very tragic.

Hopefully Edwards will join Jochen Rindt and Paul Warwick as posthumous champions.

Anybody know what turn he went off at?

The mother of a British racing driver killed in Australia today spoke of her agony and revealed his car crashed on the final corner of a test session.

Sean Edwards, 26, was in the passenger seat of a Porsche 996 giving a private lesson as it approached the home straight.

But the car careered across up to 100m of gravel at high-speed and then crashed through two layers of tyres and into a concrete wall before bursting into flames.

His mother today paid tribute to the son of former Formula 1 driver Guy Edwards, who he played in some racing scenes in Ron Howard’s film Rush.

Daphne McKinley told the Standard: “It was just such a shock to have it happen in that way.

“You expect it on the track, but not in that way, I believe it was the last corner of the track and the session.

“It’s a mother’s worst nightmare. It’s what you never want to happen, for your children to die before you. The loss to us is unfathomable.

“I used to go to all his races and we were very, very close. I haven’t just lost a son, I have lost a great friend.

“He was an inspiration. He was just an extraordinary, intelligent and wonderfully talented young man who was loved by everyone. Wherever he went he lit up everything.”

Ms McKinley, who owns a Knightsbridge property developers, said they believe the car shot off the track because the throttle became stuck. She said witnesses had seen brake lights, indicating they were working and not the problem, but an investigation has been launched.

There were, however, no passenger controls on the Porsche. Cars on the Queensland Raceway, 25 miles west of Brisbane, often reach up to 150mph.

Miss McKinley added: “I said to him just a few days before ‘why are you going to Australia to do a lesson? You are winning the championship. You don’t need to go’.

“And he said, ‘well Mum, I love mentoring’. He loved bringing on young drivers though the ranks, and he died doing it.”

Mr Edwards, the current Porsche Supercup Championship leader, began learning to drive at the age of three in go-karts at an indoor track in Battersea near where he grew up.

It became his passion after he found it hard to study with dyslexia and an attention deficit disorder.

Miss McKinley revealed: “It was very hard for him to study at school so I tried to find an avenue for him. To go round a track always calmed him down. It gave him a focus.”

The family moved to Monaco just before his eighth birthday but returned to Oxford where he studied for his GCSEs and A-levels.

He went on to win his first European championships at the age of 19 after joining the British Racing Drivers’ Club. The family have since moved back to Monaco.

Sister Jade, 25, a writer and director currently in New York, said: “Racing was never not a part of Sean’s life. Ever since he was a baby boy he would play with race cars, and from there on it was an addiction.

“The irony is that his death wasn’t in his control when he died, he was a passenger. It would feel different if he crashed in a race, because then he was dying for his passion, but it feels jarring and ultimately ironic that his death is from being in the passenger seat with a client on the other side of the world that was completely unnecessary for him to take on.”

She added: “Sean was disarming and incredibly humble given his success and fame. Some people shine too bright for the world, and Sean was one of those people, a real fire spirit. Those who had the chance to meet him were always charmed.”

The family, who have flown to London, expect to hold his funeral in Kensington and Chelsea next week.