Nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi has given his reaction to the death of close friend Marco Simoncelli on lap two of the Sepang MotoGP race today using Twitter.

Rossi, who is new to the social media site, said simply: "Sic for me was like a youngest brother.so strong on track and so sweet in the normal life.I will miss him a lot."

The nine-times world champion was very close to Simoncelli having grown up within kilometres of each other on Italy's Adriatic coast. He was caught up in the accident when the San Carlo Honda rider veered sharply to the right on lap two of yesterday's race and straight into the path of Rossi and Colin Edwards, neither of which had any time or room to move.