Aprilia Endures ‘Embarrassing’ Aragon MotoGP Weekend: Espargaro and Vinales Struggle Amid Tyre Woes

Disastrous Aprilia Weekend, "Shameful" Aragon MotoGP Race

Aleix Espargaro ends up trailing Marc Marquez by 40 seconds in a "shameful" finish, while Maverick Vinales withdraws halfway through the race.

On Friday at the Aragon MotoGP practice, Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales posted times that were second only to Marc Marquez.

Nonetheless, the heavy rain from both Friday and Saturday nights left them struggling.

Initially, Espargaro trailing by 2.9 seconds and Vinales by 3.7 seconds behind Marquez's pole position time in qualifying seemed like an unusual event.

The shortfall was evident during the Sprint race, as Vinales ended up in 19th place, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which translates to a gap of 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro, on the other hand, was unable to make it past the first turn. He experienced wheelspin due to the dirty side of the starting grid and ended up colliding with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.

Participating in his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish on Sunday, but he was a disappointing 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, placing tenth.

"I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to work, and we ended up more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating," Espargaro commented. "Once more, I nearly couldn't keep the bike under control, but at least we secured a top ten finish and earned some points."

Espargaro admitted that they couldn't get the tires to function properly. He emphasized that his main concern was preventing a crash rather than aiming for high performance. He even struggled to get his knee to touch the ground.

"I wasn't able to tilt the bike into the curves. It was an unusual and unfamiliar experience for us, and it's difficult to come to terms with. We have to understand what went wrong."

Vinales faced even more challenges, falling to the last position right from the start of Sunday's race. He stayed there, only ahead of Luca Marini who began from the pit lane, until he withdrew shortly before the race's halfway point.

The fastest lap of the COTA winner was 2.7 seconds slower than that of Marquez.

"We struggled to get the tires functioning properly. It felt like I was on the brink of crashing at every corner, particularly with the back tire," Vinales explained.

"The weekend was challenging for both Aprilia and myself. Despite a strong showing on Friday, everything fell apart afterward."

Struggling to optimize the tyres on a challenging track, Marquez's race time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's performance two years ago. This issue mirrored Aprilia's past struggles with slick tyres in wet conditions. "A terrible weekend," stated team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite low grip, but then we lost our direction, finishing around four seconds slower than our best times."

"This poor performance should inspire us to keep analyzing and improving as we prepare for the next races, beginning with Misano."

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint, fell during the first lap of the grand prix. His teammate Raul Fernandez ended up in 16th place due to a penalty for tyre pressure.

“Today was incredibly challenging,” remarked Fernandez. “I’m not entirely sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with relatively decent traction before encountering significant tyre graining. However, today, I had no grip at all.”

"I lacked traction and it felt as if I was racing on ice the entire time, which led to numerous errors."

"That race was among the toughest I've ever experienced… The silver lining is that all of us on the Aprilia team are encountering similar problems. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate effectively to find a solution."

A positive update for Aprilia is that the upcoming Misano race this weekend, which is on their home turf, is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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