**”Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: A Weekend of Embarrassment and Frustration”**

Dismal Weekend for Aprilia, Disappointing Aragon MotoGP Performance

Aleix Espargaro ends up trailing Marc Marquez by a staggering 40 seconds, while Maverick Vinales drops out halfway through the race.

Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales concluded Friday's MotoGP practice sessions at Aragon with only Marc Marquez posting faster times.

Nonetheless, they struggled due to the muddy conditions caused by rain on both Friday and Saturday nights.

At first glance, the substantial gaps of 2.9 seconds for Espargaro and 3.7 seconds for Vinales behind Marquez's pole position time in qualifying appeared to be an anomaly.

However, this shortfall was evident during the Sprint race, with Vinales ending up in 19th place, at the back of the pack, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which translates to 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro's race ended at the first turn after experiencing wheelspin on the less clean side of the starting grid, which caused him to collide with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.

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

"I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to be effective, and we ended up more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating," Espargaro admitted. "Once again, I struggled to stay on the bike, 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 said his main concern was preventing crashes rather than optimizing performance, and he even found it challenging to touch his knee to the ground.

"I wasn't able to lean into the bike's turns at all. It was an unusual and unfamiliar experience for us, which is difficult to come to terms with. We need to understand what went wrong."

The situation was even more dire for Vinales, who fell to the very last position at the beginning of Sunday’s race. He stayed there, except for being ahead of Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he withdrew from the race shortly before reaching the halfway point.

The fastest lap of the COTA winner was 2.7 seconds behind Marquez.

"We struggled to make the tyres function properly. It felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly with the rear tyre," Vinales explained.

"Aprilia and I faced a challenging weekend; despite a strong showing on Friday, everything went downhill from there."

The challenge of getting the tyres to perform on a difficult track surface was evident—Marquez’s race-winning time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's performance two years earlier. This issue mirrored past struggles Aprilia has faced when using slick tyres in wet conditions. "A terrible weekend," stated team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite having little grip, but then we lost our momentum, finishing roughly four seconds slower than our best times."

"This poor showing 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, had an accident on the first lap of the grand prix. His teammate, Raul Fernandez, ended up in 16th place due to a penalty for improper tyre pressure.

“Today was really tough,” Fernandez remarked. “I’m not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed to get three laps with decent traction before experiencing significant tyre graining. But today, I didn’t have any grip at all.”

"I struggled to maintain control and it felt like I was racing on an icy surface the entire time, leading to numerous errors."

"That race was among the toughest I've ever experienced… The upside is that all of us in the Aprilia team are dealing with the same challenges. With four riders providing feedback, we have four times the input, allowing us to collaborate and find a solution together."

Another positive update for Aprilia is that the upcoming Misano race this weekend is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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