Marco Simoncelli (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko simonˈtʃɛlli]; 20 January 1987 – 23 October 2011) 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 250cc World Championship with Gilera in 2008. After four years in the intermediate class, he stepped up to the MotoGP class with the Honda Gresini Team. Simoncelli died in an accident during the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang on 23 October 2011 after being run over following his own fall on track.

Marco 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.

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