Aprilia Struggles in Aragon: Espargaro and Vinales Face ‘Embarrassing’ Weekend Amid Tyre Woes

Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia, Embarrassing Performance at Aragon MotoGP

Aleix Espargaro ends the race 40 seconds behind winner Marc Marquez, while Maverick Vinales withdraws halfway through.

Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales ended Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon with only Marc Marquez ahead of them on the timing charts.

Nevertheless, the muddy conditions caused by the overnight rain on both Friday and Saturday left them struggling.

It initially seemed like an anomaly that Espargaro and Vinales were 2.9 seconds and 3.7 seconds slower than Marquez’s pole position time in the qualifying session.

However, the shortfall was evident in the Sprint race, with Vinales ending in the 19th and final position, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, averaging a gap of 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro, on the other hand, couldn't make it past the first turn. He experienced wheelspin due to being on the less clean side of the grid and ended up making contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio's bike.

In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish but was a disappointing 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, securing tenth place.

"I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to work, and we ended up finishing more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating," Espargaro stated. "Once again, I struggled to stay on the bike, but at least we managed to secure a top ten finish and earn some points."

Espargaro stated that they couldn't get the tires functioning properly. He mentioned that he concentrated more on preventing crashes rather than on achieving good performance. He added that it was challenging to even touch his knee to the ground.

"I wasn't able to tilt the bike during turns. It was an unusual and difficult scenario for us to deal with. We have to understand what went wrong."

Vinales faced even greater challenges, plummeting to the very end of the lineup during the first lap on Sunday. He stayed in this position, only ahead of Luca Marini who began from the pit lane, until he withdrew from the race shortly before the halfway mark.

The fastest lap of the COTA winner was 2.7 seconds slower than Marquez's best lap.

"We struggled to get the tires to function properly. It felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly because of the rear tire," Vinales explained.

"The weekend proved challenging for both Aprilia and myself. Despite a strong showing on Friday, everything seemed to fall apart afterward."

Struggling to get the tires to perform on a challenging track surface resulted in Marquez finishing the race 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's winning time from two years prior. This issue appeared to mirror past problems Aprilia faced when using slick tires in wet conditions. "A terrible weekend," said team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite the low grip, but then we lost our momentum and ended up about four seconds slower than our best times."

"We need to use this poor performance as motivation to keep analyzing and improving for the future races, beginning with Misano."

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint, had an accident on the first lap of the grand prix. Meanwhile, his teammate Raul Fernandez ended up in 16th place due to a penalty for tire pressure.

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

"I couldn't get any traction; it felt like I was racing on ice the entire time, which led to numerous errors on my part."

"That race was among the toughest I've ever experienced… The silver lining is that everyone on the Aprilia team seems to be encountering the same challenges. With four riders contributing their feedback, we can collaborate effectively to determine the best course of action."

Another positive development for Aprilia is that the upcoming home round at Misano this weekend is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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