Marco Simoncelli was an Italian professional
motorcycle racer. He competed in the
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.
(20 January 1987 – 23 October 2011)
Early career
Marco Simoncelli was born in
Cattolica but grew up and lived in
Coriano with his family since childhood.
[1][2] He started racing minibikes at the age of seven in his hometown of Coriano,
[3][4]
moving on to the Italian Minimoto Championship in 1996 at the early age
of nine. 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 won the title in his rookie year. In 2002, he
competed and won the European 125cc Championship.
[5]
125cc (2002–2005)
After a successful European 125cc campaign, in August 2002,
Simoncelli made his first Grand Prix appearance with Matteoni Racing,
replacing Czech rider
Jaroslav Huleš who stepped up to the 250cc class.
[6] Simoncelli, riding an
Aprilia bike with the number 37, managed to finish in 27th place in
his first race at
Brno.
[7] In the following race at
Estoril, he scored his first championship points by finishing in 13th place.
[8] However, he failed to score any points in the next four races and finished the season with three points from six races.
[9]
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.
[10] He managed to score points in six races with a best result of fourth at
Valencia, the
last race of the season.
[11] Overall, he scored 31 points and ranked 21st in the final championship standings.
[12]
In the
2004 season, Simoncelli switched to WorldwideRace team under the name of Rauch Bravo, which also run an
Aprilia bike.
[13] In the
second race of the season at
Jerez, Simoncelli recorded his first
pole position.
[14] In the race, which was held in wet conditions, Simoncelli was in second place when race leader
Casey Stoner crashed out with three laps remaining, handing Simoncelli his first victory.
[15]
However, the victory was his only podium finish for the season. He
managed to score points in seven other races with a best result of
sixth. He ended in 11th place in the final standings with 79 points.
[16]
Simoncelli continued to ride for WorldwideRace in
2005, this time under the Nocable.it Race banner.
[17] In the
opening race at Jerez, he qualified first and then won the race for his second successive win at Jerez.
[18]
Despite failing to add another win that season, Simoncelli finished on
the podium on five other occasions. His consistency earned him 177
points and a fifth place in the final standings.
[19]
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.
[19][20] He joined the Metis
Gilera team, an Italian motorcycle manufacturer who returned to the intermediate class after a lengthy absence.
[21] His first season saw him finish 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, finishing 10th overall.
In
2007
he continued with the same team. His season was similar to the previous
one and he was again 10th in the final standings, without a podium
finish.
He had his first 250cc win at the
Italian Grand Prix 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
Héctor Barberá.
Barberá then crashed into him and Simoncelli won the race by 3 seconds.
Barberá 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.
On 8 June 2008 he followed up his Italian victory at the
Catalan Grand Prix after overtaking
Álvaro Bautista on the last lap after Bautista 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 Bautista and Barberá by approximately 2.5 seconds. He also won in his class at the
2008 Australian motorcycle Grand Prix held on 3–5 October 2008, narrowly defeating 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 in
2009.
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.
[22]
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.
[23]
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.
[24]
2011
In the
2011 season, Simoncelli was predicted to be the surprise package of the season.
[25] He finished fifth in the
season opening race in Qatar, before falling from the lead of the wet race at
Jerez.
[26] He secured his highest starting position to that point of 2nd, before falling on the first lap of the
Estoril race.
[27] 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.
[28] Simoncelli initially rejected blame for the crash, claiming he braked no later than normal, and that he left Pedrosa room.
[29] Before the next race, however, he accepted that he needed to reflect on his riding style.
[30]
Simoncelli was required to meet with race direction before the start of the racing weekend at
Catalonia.
[30][31] On the track, Simoncelli secured his first MotoGP pole position, 0.016 seconds ahead of
Casey Stoner.
[32]
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.
[33] His best MotoGP finish was second place in the Australian GP at Phillip Island.
Death
On 23 October 2011, Simoncelli was involved in a collision with
Colin Edwards and
Valentino Rossi during the
Malaysian Grand Prix at the
Sepang International Circuit.
In fourth position during lap two, Simoncelli's bike lost traction in
Turn 11 and it started to slide towards the gravel, but the tyres
regained traction and his bike suddenly veered across the track into the
path of Edwards and Rossi, with Simoncelli hanging down on the right
side.
[34]
Simoncelli was struck in the head and neck by Edwards, in the course
of which Simoncelli lost his helmet and Edwards was catapulted from his
bike. The race was immediately red-flagged. Edwards suffered a
dislocated shoulder; Simoncelli suffered much more severe injuries and
was taken by ambulance to the circuit's medical centre, and at 16:56
local time, less than an hour after the accident, it was announced that
he had died from his injuries.
[35][36][37]
Later, at a press conference involving members of the MotoGP Race
Direction, Medical Director Michele Macchiagodena said that Simoncelli
had sustained "a very serious trauma to the head, to the neck and the
chest", and was administered
CPR for 45 minutes.
[38]
His body was flown home to Italy, accompanied by his father Paolo,
his fiancée Kate Fretti, and Valentino Rossi. The family were greeted by
Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Petrucci, before the body
was transported to a theatre in
Coriano,
Rimini, where it was placed in an open coffin. Fans and visitors were
then allowed to pay their respects, in a walk-through memorial that
included his 250cc World Championship winning Gilera, plus his 2011
MotoGP Honda.
[39] An estimated 20,000 people attended his funeral
[40] at the Santa Maria Assunta parish church in Coriano on 27 October 2011, which was broadcast live on
Italia 1 and
Rai 2.
Legacy
On 3 November, the
Misano World Circuit announced plans to rename itself in honour of Simoncelli.
[41] At the final Grand Prix of the
2011 season in
Valencia, Spain,
a tribute lap on race morning was held in honour of Simoncelli, with
riders from all three Grand Prix classes taking part along with
1993 500cc World Champion
Kevin Schwantz, who rode Simoncelli's bike.
[42]
Tributes were made in
Formula One with
Jenson Button dedicating his performance in the
2011 Indian Grand Prix to Simoncelli and
IndyCar Series driver
Dan Wheldon, who died at the
Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the weekend before, during the
2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championship.
[43] A minute's silence was held at the Grand Prix in memory of Wheldon and Simoncelli. At the
2012 Malaysian Grand Prix,
Ferrari drivers
Felipe Massa and
Fernando Alonso,
along with other members of the team paid tribute to Simoncelli by
returning to turn 11 and having a group photo with a banner in
remembrance.
[44]
On the same day of the accident, all
Serie A football matches in Italy held one minute of silence in remembrance of Simoncelli as instructed by the
Italian National Olympic Committee President
Gianni Petrucci.
[45]
On 20 January 2012, the anniversary of Simoncelli's birth, it was announced at a ceremony in his home town
Coriano
that the town's sports area would be renamed "Palazzetto dello Sport
Marco Simoncelli", and that one of the town's tram routes would be
re-numbered 58 in his honour.
[46]
To see more of who died in 2011
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