Rossi recalls 'profound desolation' after Simoncelli's death

Valentino Rossi has written in his book La Mia Storia (My Story) about the emotions he felt after Marco Simoncelli died at the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix. Rossi and Simoncelli had been friends for years, and Simoncelli had emerged as one of MotoGP's most promising riders by 2011. Simoncelli lost the front at turn 11 on lap two and tried to save the bike, veering to the inside, and Rossi and Colin Edwards behind him could not avoid contact.

Rossi describes learning from his team that Simoncelli's helmet had come off, and seeing footage of the impact on monitors in the garage. He writes of a sense of total, profound desolation, while noting the accident resulted from a series of circumstances.

Rossi went on to race for a further 10 years before retiring in 2021. He writes that retirement did not occur to him after the incident, saying everything about the way it happened was part of the sport, which Simoncelli had always loved.