Coriano, the hometown of Marco Simoncelli, will witness Thursday the final sendoff for the fallen motorcycle racer who rode full throttle until the end.

Simoncelli's body was flown back in a casket to Italy on Tuesday, with his father Paolo and fellow racer and close friend Valentino Rossi on the same flight from Malaysia to Italy.

Expected to attend in the funeral are various representatives of sport organisations, such as Gianni Petrucci, Secretary of the Italian National Olympic Committee and Paolo Sesti, President of the Italian Federation of Motorcycling.

The elder Simoncelli has earlier expressed his gratitude to everyone who has been expressing their sympathies with Marco's friends and family.

"Thank you to everyone and I'm not just saying that... To say that I'm delighted with the way the world has reacted would be stupid but we hadn't realized how important Marco was to people... He was special -- people understood he was honest. Marco was pure," Mr. Simoncelli told reporters.

On Twitter, Rossi said, "Have a lot of request from guys that tomorrow cannot come to Coriano for Sic.don't worry I will say Ciao to Marco from everybody.thanks."

Sic is Simoncelli's alias, while Rossi is known as Vale.

Fans are also consoling Sic's girlfriend Kate Fretti on Twitter.

Twitter peeps send condolences to Filipina-Italian Kate Fretti, Marco Simoncelli's longtime girlfriend.

Kate, a Filipina-Italian beauty, has just moved in with Marco a few months ago, according to Celebritydaily.net. She has been quoted by a twitter user as saying, "He said he would never leave me... He was wrong." The couple reportedly got engaged three years ago.

The funeral is set to begin at 3:00pm (UTC+1) in the church of Santa Maria di Coriano, in Simoncelli's Coriano hometown.

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