BBC News Wrote:Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond is critically ill in hospital after a crash in a jet-powered car while filming for the programme.

The 36-year-old presenter was taken by air ambulance to Leeds General Infirmary's neurological unit.

A North Yorkshire Ambulance Service spokesman said he was unconscious when they got to the scene and a hospital spokesman described him as "critical".

The Top Gear shoot was at the former RAF airfield in Elvington, Yorkshire.

Inspector Mike Thompson, of North Yorkshire Police, said: "At 5.45pm this evening we received a report via the fire service of a male person trapped in what was described as an overturned jet car which had been driven on the airfield.

"The male occupant has received serious injuries and has been airlifted to hospital at Leeds."

Former Top Gear presenter Quentin Willson said the presenter was "irreplaceable".

He said: "He is a wonderful, unique and distinctive Top Gear presenter.

"He has brought an awful lot to the programme and his indefatigable energy, the fact that he tries absolutely anything once, may have been the reason that he has overstepped the mark a bit.

"He has turned Top Gear into a gang show with Jeremy and James and the three of them have wowed audiences all over the world and he is an international personality."

Mr Willson added: "There is no pressure from the BBC or the producer to take undue risks.

"But that pressure is in your own head. You want to do an item on the programme which is mindblowing.

"You want to do a fantastic item that blows everybody away."

The presenter was born in Birmingham, educated in Yorkshire and lives near Cheltenham.

In addition to presenting Top Gear for the BBC, he also fronted Brainiac on Sky One until recently.