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It is easy to refer to any departed friend as a ‘star in the making', but Andrea Antonelli truly was. From being a runner-up in the European Superstock 600 Championship, through being a stalwart on the Lorini Honda (against the new-generation rivals) in the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup, to a World Supersport Top-10 Championship finisher last year, Andrea was on the way up - and then some.

After racing both Honda and Yamahas in WSS in 2012, Antonelli moved to the Italian GoEleven Kawasaki squad for this season, and it was a marriage made in heaven. The team had struggled last year, but now they had a rider who would take them to up a whole new level.

He didn't finish in his home round at Monza, but everywhere else he came home in the top 10, with a best of 4th at Aragon. And if you were at Donington, you would have seen him climb to 8th at the end after starting 23rd following problems in qualifying.

At Moscow it was even better as he lined up 4th on the grid after being 3rd in the morning warm-up. Podiums and maybe even wins were soon to be on the cards before fate intervened...

But then this sport that we live, breathe and love so much can also deal the cruelest of blows.

Andrea Antonelli will no longer ride his green No 8 Kawasaki. The 25 year old rider from Umbria left us on a strangely cool and rainy summer's day on the track of Moscow Raceway.