RIP Marco Simoncelli

[ShiftingGears]

How did the helmet come to be detached anyway?

Because Rossi's bike hit his neck/head.

[pino]

Terrible news

R.I.P Marco

[jiipee64]

A Sad Day !!!

[CaptainRaiden]

R.I.P. Marco Simoncelli.

What a sad couple of weeks these have been for motorsport. I've been following Marco's career right from his 125cc days, where he had a pretty tough time, crashing almost every race. 250cc was where he found his true form, and I cheered him all the way through against Bautista for winning the championship, and he did. What's sad is he won his 250cc crown at Malaysia, at the same track where he lost his life today.

When he came to MotoGP, I was so impressed with how quickly he got to terms with the bigger bikes, and how amazingly well he did in his one-off outing in WSBK at Imola. The crash today was just nasty, and I knew it was at least gonna be serious injury, but couldn't have foretold that he'd pass away.

All I can say is R.I.P. Marco Simoncelli. The world of motorcycle racing has lost one of its brightest and naturally talented stars.

[pete c]

R.I.P. Marco, and condolences to family and friends.
I feel like i have lost a friend, even though i never actually new you.
ciao amigo

[urabus-denoS2000]

Horrible, really horrible news. I can't imagine how Rossi and Edwards feel right now. R.I.P Marco Simoncelli

[00steven]

Sometimes this sport kicks you right in the gut. I don't follow Moto GP much, but I definately knew of Marco. With everything this past week with Dan it's just too much to handle. RIP Marco...way to young to go.

[truefan72]

just stunned
still slightly numb after DW in nindycar
and now this promising young rider
so sad

RIP Marco

[52Paddy]

A really sad day for motorsport. Such a tragic string of events (Wheldon's and now this) seems so alien as it's been a long time since we've had a very black patch in the world of motorsport. I had been waiting for the day Simoncelli would win his first race and, in my opinion, it wouldn't have been too far into the future. I loved his erratic approach to racing - even if he was a bit careless at times, he was exciting to watch. I'll never forget his performance in a wet Silverstone race, even though it ended in tears for him. My friend, who has only been getting into MotoGP in recent weeks, latched onto Simoncelli straight away and it's sad that his career and life have been cut short so abruptly.

R.I.P. Marco Simoncelli - a great shame your full potential was never realised

[Nikki Katz]

This has been arguably the worst week for motorsport in fifteen years.

I'm only a casual MotoGP fan, but it seemed to me that Simoncelli reminded me a lot of Lorenzo at the start of his career - spectacularly fast and getting completely unexpected poles right from the start, but somewhat crash-happy, which completely wrecked the end results. I honestly felt that, like Lorenzo, give him a few years to iron that out and he could be champion.

I've not seen the accident, but from what everyone has said it sounds exactly the same as Tomizawa's last year, which I did catch. The thing is, I'm not even certain that anything at all can be done about this. This isn't a problem with the circuit or the rider's safety gear; if the rider's lying prone in the middle of the track then nothing will be able to save him by being hit by bikes behind.

In a way, although I held Wheldon as something of a hero, and that's not really the same for Simoncelli, lessons can be learnt from Wheldon's death, I just don't see that it's possible here. Just a terrible waste.

RIP