**”Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro and Vinales Falter in ‘Embarrassing’ MotoGP Weekend”**

Disastrous Aprilia Weekend, Humiliating Aragon MotoGP Race

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

On Friday, during MotoGP practice at Aragon, Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales secured positions just behind Marc Marquez on the leaderboard.

Nonetheless, the rain that fell overnight on both Friday and Saturday left them struggling.

At first glance, the significant gaps of 2.9 seconds for Espargaro and 3.7 seconds for Vinales behind Marquez's pole position time in qualifying seemed like an anomaly.

However, the shortfall was evident in the Sprint race, with Vinales ending up 19th and in the last position, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which translates to 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro, on the other hand, failed to make it past the first turn. He experienced wheelspin on the less clean side of the starting grid and ended up making contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.

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

"I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to go right, and we ended up over 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating," Espargaro stated. "Once more, I could barely keep myself on the bike, but we managed to secure a top ten finish, so we did earn some points."

“We couldn't get the tires to perform,” Espargaro stated. “My main concern was preventing crashes rather than focusing on speed. It was challenging to even touch my knee to the ground.”

"I found it impossible to tilt the bike into the bends. This was an unusual and unfamiliar scenario for us, making it difficult to come to terms with. We must determine the cause of this issue."

Things took a turn for the worse for Vinales, who fell to the very last position during the first lap on Sunday. He stayed there, except for Luca Marini who began from the pit lane, until he withdrew from the race just before reaching the halfway mark.

The fastest lap of the COTA winner was 2.7 seconds behind Marquez's best time.

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

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

Struggling to get the tyres to perform on a challenging track – evidenced by Marquez's race time being 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's time from two years prior – appeared to mirror Aprilia's past issues when using slick tyres in wet conditions. "It was a terrible weekend," said team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite having little grip, but then we lost our direction and ended up roughly four seconds slower than our best times."

"We need to use this poor performance as a driving force 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, was involved in an accident on 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 extremely challenging,” Fernandez commented. “I’m not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed to complete three laps with relatively decent traction, though I did experience significant tyre graining afterward. However, today, I had no grip at all.”

"I struggled with traction throughout the race and felt as though I was driving on ice, which led to numerous errors."

“That race was among the toughest I’ve ever experienced… The bright side is that all of us on the Aprilia team are encountering the same challenges. With four riders providing input, we can collaborate closely to find a solution.”

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

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