De Angelis, Alex

Motor sports are very popular in the Sammarin family: his father, Vinicho, is an amateur rally racer , who from childhood raised his practical love for such competitions in his sons: both Alex and his brother William got the opportunity to race in motorcycle competitions at an early age, later growing up to the younger World Championship Grand Prix classes.

The career of the younger De Angeles was developing more rapidly than that of his older brother: a series of good results in the Italian championship in the "minimoto" class and in the monocoque on Honda motorcycles with an engine displacement of 125 cc gradually put him on the leading roles in all-Italian motorsport at a similar level. In 1999, he regularly participated in 125 cc class races, becoming the second in the Italian championship and the seventh in the European championship. In September, the Sanmarinan will make his debut at the World Grand Prix motor racing championship , having passed the semi-domestic junior class in Imola for one of the Honda teams, and later agreed on a full-fledged performance in the series in the 2000 season. Performances in the junior series of the World Cup stretched over four seasons, during which De Angelis gradually improved the stability of his performances, regularly finished on the podium positions and in 2003 was even able to rise to the second line of the individual standings, however, the complete absence of races won even this season is noticeable alienated him from the real fight for the title. Local failures of the first seasons led to a change of equipment in 2002-03, where the Sanmariner played for teams using Aprilia motorcycles.

In 2004, Alex moved to the 250 ss class, where, in the end, he stayed for four seasons. Collaboration with the Italian brand continued, which immediately allowed De Angelis to fight in the leading peloton group. By 2006, the Sanmariner reached the peak stability of his performances, regularly finishing at the podium positions and even winning his first race in the World Cup: on the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia . Attempts to fight for the title twice ended in third place in the standings, each time Alex was inferior to a pair of Jorge Lorenzo / Andrea Dovitiosio . In 2008, the whole trio moved to high school and if the Spaniard and Italian were able to gain a foothold in this championship, then De Angelis spent only two seasons in the series, after which from time to time he lost his place in high school, filling these gaps with starts in the Moto2 championship, which was formed on the eve of the 2009 season as a result of the revision of class regulations for 250 ss. The best year in MotoGP came in 2009, when the Sanmariner was able to make his way to the Top10 of the personal classification of the class for the only time and earned his only podium finish at this level: during the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2009, when he finished second, losing only to Lorenzo . In Moto2, Alex spent only one full season during this period, taking in fourth place in 2011 in the individual competition; De Angelis won the following races in the World Cup in the same class: in 2010-12, he won twice the Australian Grand Prix and once the Malaysian Moto Prix .

Alex was involved in serious accidents: at the 2010 San Marino Grand Prix , he and Scott Reading became the indirect culprits of the death of Shoe Tomizawa , when the Japanese, having lost control, fell during a race in front of their motorcycles, without Sanmarinets and Britons of time in order to avoid a collision. Tomizawa and Redding were taken to the hospital, where he later died. ^[2]

• Official site (English) (Italian)
• Profile (English) on MotoGP