Marco Simoncelli dies in Cancelled Sepang MotoGP

[niniendowarrior]

Marco Simoncelli has tragically died due to injuries sustained on the second lap of the Malaysian MotoGP at Sepang.

The Italian fell from fourth place after losing the front of his motorcycle through the right-hand turn 11.

Instead of sliding straight off the race track, as is normal, Simoncelli was then dragged by his bike - which had regained grip and was partially upright - as it veered back across to the inside of the track.

Lying sideways and still facing forwards, the Gresini Honda rider was then hit from behind by Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi, who had no chance to avoid the sliding #58.

Simoncelli's helmet came off during those impacts, which occurred at almost the same time and left Simoncelli motionless on the track. The race was immediately stopped and later cancelled so that medical staff could continue to focus completely on treating the Italian in the medical centre.

Sadly, Simoncelli succumbed to his injuries at 16:56 local time.

http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/174..._injuries.html

Holy f*ck! What the f*ck?!

[seansloan]

Loved Marco.Sad day

[seansloan]

After watching the youtube that is the worst thing Ive ever seen in motorcycle racing.I hope Colin can deal with this racing tragedy.

[niniendowarrior]

This has got to be one crazy time for motorsport. Wow... insane!

[seansloan]

At least he and Dan were taken quickly.

[niniendowarrior]

At least he and Dan were taken quickly.

That's true. I'm thinking what safety measures could be taken given this situation, but I'm not sure what can be done. MotoGP always looked scary on the outside when someone crashes out, but everyone seemed to walk away from it just fine. This one is just an extraordinary sequence of unfortunate events. I wonder what's going through Colin's mind now.

[Shamrocked]

I was watching live, and it looked pretty obvious that he was gone before his body even came to rest. He lost the front on a simple low side in a third gear corner and started sliding off track when his tires caught grip and shot him back onto the track directly in the path of Edwards and Rossi. It looked like Colin hit him first knocking his helmet off and then Marco's best friend Valentino came along and finished him off. Vale was able to stay upright, but was visibly shaken on his way back to the garage. Colin went down very hard (dislocating his shoulder), but jumped up to check on Simoncelli. It was obvious that he knew he was gone, as he just collapsed on the side of the track with his head in his hands. They didn't show the whole crash in replays, but live you could see Sic's lifeless body sliding facedown (with no helmet) across the track with his hands at his sides.

I adored the kid, and had the pleasure of having met him several times. He was so gracious and accessible to fans, and I firmly believe he was a future premier class champion. The crash made me nauseous and I literally felt like weeping. I nearly stayed home from work today, and I can't recall the last time I was this shaken when someone I know died. Just a sh!tty, sh!tty day today.

[Cbear]

Damn that was horrendous.

[Guilty]

Do they know what happened, what caused him to lose control of his bike?

[Shamrocked]

Do they know what happened, what caused him to lose control of his bike?

It was just a simple low side. Generally it's due to cold tires, too much lean angle, grabbing too much front brake while cornering or too much throttle before you get the bike picked up from the corner. It probably happens a dozen times or better over the course of a race weekend. It's the kind of thing where you generally slide of the track into the gravel, get up, dust yourself off and if your levers and rear sets aren't broken climb back on your bike and get back in the game. The sad part was that he had already cleared off the track and out of harm's way, but his tires inexplicably grabbed the Tarmac and spit him back into the racing line. His crash was literally nothing. He was killed in a freak accident and unfortunately last year's deaths of Shoya Tomizawa and Peter Lenz were the same kind of occurrence.