Marco Simoncelli death: safety in Moto GP is never 100 per cent guaranteed, says Sepang circuit chairman

MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli died exactly a week after Dan Wheldon, and while the tributes poured in for the 24-year-old following his death in Malaysia on Sunday there were calls to investigate the circumstances as the chairman of the Sepang circuit admitted safety in the sport could never be 100 per cent guaranteed.
The 24-year-old Italian lost control of his Honda at turn 11 four minutes into the race, but his bike regained partial grip and swerved across the track, straight into the path of American Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi of Italy.

While falling his helmet came off and Medical Director Michele Macchiagodena said that Simoncelli sustained "a very serious trauma to the head, to the neck and the chest" and died of his injures.

It was the first fatality in MotoGP since Japan's Daijiro Katoh died from injuries sustained at the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix. Last year, however, Japanese teenager Shoya Tomizawa died after crashing in a Moto2 race at San Marino.

Simoncelli's fatality raised the number of recorded deaths in MotoGP to 47 since it was founded in 1949.

MotoGP race director Paul Butler pledged to investigate the circumstances surrounding the accident while Sepang circuit chairman Mokhzani Mahathir voiced his condolences and said it was unfortunate that a death occurred for the first time since the circuit opened in 1999.