Marco Simoncelli (20 January 1987 – 23 October 2011) was an Italian motorcycle racer. He competed in Road Racing World Championship for 10 years from 2002 to 2011. He started in the 125cc class before moving up to the 250cc class in 2006. He won the 250cc World Championship with Gilera in 2008. After four years in the intermediate class, he stepped up to the MotoGP class with the Honda Gresini Team. Simoncelli died after an accident during the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang on 23 October 2011.
Early career
Simoncelli started racing in 1996 at an early age of nine in Italian Minimoto Championship. He won the Italian Minimoto Championship in 1999 and 2000 while also became the runner-up in the 2000 European Minimoto Championship. The following year, he stepped up to the Italian 125cc Championship and he successfully won the title in his rookie year. In 2002, he competed and won the European 125cc Championship.
25cc (2002–2005)
After a successful European 125cc campaign, in August 2002, Simoncelli was drafted into the Matteoni Racing Team to replace Czech rider Jaroslav Huleš who stepped up to the 250cc class.[1] Simoncelli, riding an Aprilia bike with the number 37, managed to finish in 27th place in his first race at Brno Circuit.[2] In the following race at Estoril, he scored his first championship points by finishing in the 13th place.[3] However, he failed to score any point in the next four races and finished the season with only three points from six races.[4]
He continued with the Matteoni Racing Team for his first full season in 2003. That season, he also started to use the iconic number 58 on his bike.[5] He managed to score points only in six races with a best result of fourth at Valencia, the last race of the season.[6] Overall, he scored 31 points and ranked 21st in the final standings.[7]
In the 2004 season, Simoncelli switched to WorldwideRace team under the name of Rauch Bravo, which also run an Aprilia bike.[8] In the second race of the season at Jerez, Simoncelli recorded his first pole position.[9] In the race, which was under wet conditions, Simoncelli was in second place when race leader Casey Stoner crashed out with three laps remaining, handing Simoncelli his first victory.[10] However, the victory was his only podium finish for the season. He only managed to score points in seven other races with best results of sixth. He ended in 11th place in the final standings with 79 points.[11]
Simoncelli continued to ride for WorldwideRace team in 2005, this time under the Nocable.it Race banner.[12] In the opening race at Jerez, he qualified first and then won the race for his second successive win at Jerez.[13] Despite failing to add another win that season, Simoncelli finished on the podium in five other occasions. His consistency earned him 177 points and a fifth place in the final standings.[14]
250cc (2006–2009)
In 2006, Simoncelli stepped up to the 250cc class, becoming the only rider from the top eight in previous year’s 125cc class to make the step up.[14][15] He joined the Metis Gilera team, an Italian motorcycle manufacturer who returned to the intermediate class after a lengthy absence.[16] His first season was good although not brilliant. In most races he finished between 7th and 10th place. His best result was 6th place in the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai. He fought for the “Rookie of the Year” title until the end, finally losing to Shuhei Aoyama by seven points. In final standings he was 10th.
In 2007 he continued with the same team. His season was similar to previous one and he was again 10th in the final standings, without a podium finish.
He had his first 250cc win atthe Italian GP held at Mugello on 1 June 2008 in controversial circumstances when, with one lap to go, he leaned to the left on the long straight, possibly to block off Hector Barbera. Barbera then crashed into him and Simoncelli won the race by 3 seconds. Barbera was lucky to emerge unscathed. Some people called for sanctions but Simoncelli escaped without penalty: on 7 June he received a verbal warning from the MotoGP Riders Safety Commission.
Simoncelli at the 2009 British Grand Prix at Donington Park
On 8 June 2008 he followed up his Italian victory at the Grand Prix de Catalunya after overtaking Alvaro Bautista on the last lap after the Spanish pilot ran wide with 5 corners of the race left. Simoncelli obtained his third 250cc GP victory at the Sachsenring in the Gran Prix Deutchland on 13 July 2008 when he beat Alvaro Bautista and Hector Barbera by approximately 2.5 seconds. He also won in his class at the 2008 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix held on 3–5 October 2008. He narrowly defeated Alvaro Bautista.
On 19 October 2008 he clinched the 2008 250cc World Championship after finishing 3rd in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
He made a one-off appearance for Aprilia in the World Superbike round at Imola. He qualified on the second row and was one of three riders to crash out of race one at Tosa while running fifth, before fighting through to third in race two, making a forceful move to overtake team-mate Max Biaggi to get onto the podium.
On 25 June 2009, it was confirmed that Simoncelli would move up to premier class racing for 2010 MotoGP championship after agreeing to ride with the San Carlo Gresini Honda team.[17]
MotoGP
2010
Simoncelli got off to a slow start to the 2010 season, having suffered two preseason testing crashes at Sepang; the second of which cracked his helmet.[18] After finishing eleventh on début, Simoncelli improved over the rest of the season, finishing 16 of the 18 races in the points en route to eighth place in the championship with 125 points. His best finish was a fourth place in Portugal, missing a podium by 0.06 seconds to Andrea Dovizioso.[19]
[edit]2011
Simoncelli at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island
In the 2011 season, Simoncelli was predicted to be the surprise package of the season.[20] He finished fifth in the season opening race in Qatar, before falling from the lead of the wet race at Jerez.[21] He secured his highest starting position to that point of 2nd, before falling on the first lap of the Estoril race.[22] During the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, Simoncelli collided with Dani Pedrosa while they were battling for second. The resulting crash saw Pedrosa break his collarbone and Simoncelli received a ride-through penalty, eventually finishing fifth.[23] Simoncelli initially rejected blame for the crash, claiming he braked no later than normal, and that he left Pedrosa room.[24] Before the next race, however, he accepted that he needed to reflect on his riding style.[25]
Simoncelli was required to meet with race direction before the start of the racing weekend at Catalonia.[25][26] On the track, Simoncelli secured his first MotoGP pole position, 0.016 seconds ahead of Casey Stoner.[27] However, a poor start saw him drop to seventh managing only to recover one position to finish sixth. Simoncelli earned his first podium in the premier class, with a third place in the Czech Republic.[28]
Death
On 23 October 2011, Simoncelli was involved in an accident with Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi during the 2011 Malaysian GP at the Sepang International Circuit. In fourth position during lap two, Simoncelli’s bike veered across the track and straight into the path of Edwards and Rossi. Edwards was injured with a dislocated shoulder, while Simoncelli lay still on the track after the crash, his helmet having come off during the incident. The race was immediately red-flagged. He was taken by ambulance to the circuit’s medical centre, but at 16:56 local time it was announced that he had died from his injuries.[29][30][31] Later, at a press conference involving members of the MotoGP Race Direction, Medical Director Michele Macchiagodena said that Simoncelli sustained “a very serious trauma to the head, to the neck and the chest”, and was administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation for 45 minutes.[32]
p/s: Sedey + malu bile tgk ramai penonton (almost Malaysian) baling botol ke track sb pertandingan dibatalkan. Konon sb bayar dah mahal tp dapat tgk sekejap. Tapi, di mana rasa hormat mereka? If really dah minat, biasa dgn permotoran nih xkan lah dorg x phm2 lg. Pertandingan suddenly dibatalakn mestilah ade sumthing such as kematian / fatal accident sudey berlaku.. peace yo!!
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