Rossi: Simoncelli was like a brother

Valentino Rossi has paid tribute to his friend Marco Simoncelli in a short message.

Along with Colin Edwards, Rossi was involved in the crash that claimed the life of Simoncelli at Sepang.

Rossi has since made his first public comment about the death of Simoncelli on his official Twitter feed, saying: "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."

There have been fears that the tragic event of his friends death would drive Rossi to retirement, but his personal manager Davide Brivio has declined any assumptions that this is true, saying on his own Twitter page: "Many are asking about Vale stopping races. This [is] absolutely [not] true and I'm sorry even that I have to explain it…"