Marco Simoncelli (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko simonˈtʃɛlli];
20 January 1987 – 23 October 2011), nicknamed Sic (Italian: [ˈsitʃ]) was an Italian professional motorcycle racer. He competed in the MotoGP 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 2008 250cc World Championship with Gilera. After four years in the intermediate class, he stepped up to the top MotoGP class in 2010, racing with the Honda Gresini Team. He died in an accident at the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
Simoncelli was born in Cattolica but grew up and lived in Coriano with his family since childhood. 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. 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. Simoncelli, riding an Aprilia bike with the number 37, managed to finish in 27th place in his first race at Brno. 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.
Simoncelli 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. Overall, he scored 31 points and ranked 21st in the final championship standings.
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. He ended in 11th place in the final standings with 79 points.
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.
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. His first season saw him end most of the races he finished between seventh and tenth place. His best result was sixth 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 tenth overall.
In 2007, Simoncelli continued with the same team. His season was similar to the previous one and he was again tenth in the final standings, without a podium finish.
Simoncelli 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 three seconds.
On 8 June 2008, Simoncelli followed up his Italian victory at the Catalan Grand Prix after overtaking Álvaro Bautista on the last lap after Bautista ran wide with five 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.
On 19 October 2008, Simoncelli won the 2008 250cc World Championship after finishing third in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
Simoncelli 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 teammate 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.
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.
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.
In the 2011 season, Simoncelli was promoted to ride a factory Honda as part of the Gresini team, whilst Hiroshi Aoyama rode a satellite Honda for the team. Simoncelli was predicted to be the surprise package of the season.
He finished fifth in the season opening race in Qatar, before falling from the lead of the wet race at Jerez.