RIP, "Sic".   

A tragic series of fatalities, he lost tyres grip and sliding lost his helmet and crossed the path of following bikes without any possibility for the two closest pilots to avoid him.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motogp/15420069.stm

Sad news. I was watching the race when it happened.

Watching the helmet rolling down the track and then his father negating with his head at the outside of the medical center weren't good signs.

My sympathies with his family.

I don't follow MotoGP but from what I've seen he could have been heading for his first race win soon, such a shame.

Yes, he was like paralyzed, he was so terrified he couldn't even cry, he clenched his fists and wandered like a zombie with a blank stare... Valentino Rossi instead was crying, they were good friends, and many thought that maturing and learning to dare within his skills and the bike's limits, Simoncelli could have become almost his heir.

It's normal that Rossi was so depressed as he was not only very good friend with Sic but also because he was involved in the crash.

Regarding his skills, yes, he won the 250cc championship in 2008, but ... well I'm not the most appropiate to describe him (I'm biased as I like Pedrosa).

I prefer Pedrosa to Lorenzo, anyway, and yes, Sic still had to mature, he often dared beyond his own or his bike's limits, while Rossi learned earlier to do it within his own (very high) limits. But after all the criticisms from pissed off pilots for the times he involved them in his accidents, he was trying to mature quicker, and in this last, fatal accident Sic wasn't particularly daring, after the bike lost grip and started sliding, instead of going off on the tangent, it took a totally unnatural and unpredictable trajectory. BTW even the once invincible Rossi shows some limits, it looks like his driving style is at its best with "smoother" bikes like Honda and Yamaha, while he still has to get used to the "rough" character of the Ducati (and I still think Ducati made a mistake not supporting enough Capirossi in his last golden years, as he felt at his ease with the bike immediately, even when it was an undrivable monster, now they got him back but he's become too old).

Yes, Simocelli was still maturing (which made him being slower during most of the season) and yes, the fatal crash had nothing to do with him being daring but with being brave (he didn't left the bike) and trying to not only avoid the crash but to regain the control of the bike... and he almost did it.

As far as the problems of Ducati... it's not that Rossi isn't in good shape or that the bike is worst than last year's (in fact, the bike is usually faster this year during races than it was last year). The problem is that he (and most of the drivers) are used to have a chassis but Ducati's chassis is basically the engine and that creates a lot of troubles for him and Jeremy Burgess. Add in that mess that Stoner, while fast, wasn't able to talk to the team about what worked and what not besides a good or bad (at least that's what the rumors say), and that every Ducati in the championship is different and you end havng to depend only in your experiences to develop the bike.

About Capirex yes, he would have been more useful in the official team, but they decided that they wanted to sell more bikes in America.