Marco Simoncelli

Overall, he scored 31 points and ranked 21st in the final championship standings.

Simoncelli, riding an Aprilia bike with the number 37, managed to finish in 27th place in his first race at Brno.

Marco Simoncelli (20 January 1987 – 23 October 2011), nicknamed Sic, was an Italian professional motorcycle racer.

He started racing minibikes at the age of seven in his hometown of Coriano, 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.

He competed in the MotoGP World Championship for 10 years from 2002 to 2011.

In 2002, he competed and won the European 125cc Championship.

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.

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.

He managed to score points in six races with a best result of fourth at Valencia, the last race of the season.

In the 2004 season, Simoncelli switched to WorldwideRace team under the name of Rauch Bravo, which also run an Aprilia bike.

In the second race of the season at Jerez, Simoncelli recorded his first pole position.

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.

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.

Simoncelli continued to ride for WorldwideRace in 2005, this time under the Nocable.it Race banner.

In the opening race at Jerez, he qualified first and then won the race for his second successive win at Jerez.

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.

He started in the 125cc class before moving up to the 250cc class in 2006.

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.

He joined the Metis Gilera team, an Italian motorcycle manufacturer who returned to the intermediate class after a lengthy absence.

In 2007 he continued with the same team.

He won the 2008 250cc World Championship with Gilera.

He had his first 250cc win at the Italian Grand Prix held at Mugello on 1 June 2008 Barberá then crashed into him and Simoncelli won the race by 3 seconds.

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 German Grand Prix 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.

After four years in the intermediate class, he stepped up to the top MotoGP class in 2010, racing with the Honda Gresini Team.

His first season saw him end most of the 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.

His season was similar to the previous one and he was again 10th in the final standings, without a podium finish.

He died in an accident at the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

Marco Simoncelli was born in Cattolica but grew up and lived in Coriano with his family since childhood.

He ended in 11th place in the final standings with 79 points.

In the following race at Estoril, he scored his first championship points by finishing in 13th place.

However, he failed to score any points in the next four races and finished the season with three points from six races.