Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro and Vinales Left Floundering in ‘Embarrassing’ MotoGP Weekend

"Disastrous Aprilia Weekend, Shameful Aragon MotoGP Race"

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

Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales ended Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon with only Marc Marquez posting faster times than they did.

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

Espargaro's and Vinales's qualifying times, which were 2.9 seconds and 3.7 seconds slower than Marquez's pole time, first appeared to be an anomaly.

The Sprint race confirmed this gap, with Vinales finishing in 19th place, coming in last and trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which is an average of 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro, on the other hand, couldn't make it past the first turn. He experienced wheelspin due to starting on the dirty side of the track and then ended up hitting 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, 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 remarked. “Once again, I nearly couldn't keep myself on the bike, but we managed to secure a top ten finish, so at least we earned some points.”

Espargaro admitted, "We couldn’t get the tires to function properly. My main concern was preventing a crash rather than focusing on performance. Even getting my knee to touch the ground was challenging."

“I wasn’t able to tilt the bike during turns. This was an unusual and unfamiliar experience for us, and it's difficult to come to terms with. We have to understand what went wrong.”

Matters deteriorated further for Vinales, who immediately fell to the last position during the first lap on Sunday. He stayed there, with the exception of pit lane starter Luca Marini, until he withdrew shortly before reaching the halfway point of the race.

The top lap time of the COTA winner was 2.7 seconds behind that of Marquez.

"We struggled with the tyres, making it feel like I might crash on every corner, particularly because of the rear tyre," remarked Vinales.

"It was a challenging weekend for both Aprilia and myself. Following a strong showing on Friday, everything seemed to fall apart."

Struggling to get the tires to perform on a challenging track—Marquez’s race-winning time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini’s two years prior—appeared to mirror past issues Aprilia has faced when using slick tires in wet conditions. "A terrible weekend," said team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite having little grip, but then we lost our direction, ultimately finishing around four seconds slower than our best times."

"This poor showing should drive us to keep analyzing and improving as we prepare for the next races, starting with Misano."

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

"Today was incredibly tough," Fernandez remarked. "I can't quite grasp what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with decent grip, but then the tires started showing significant wear. However, today, I had no grip at all."

"I couldn't get any traction; it felt as though I was racing on an icy surface 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 at Aprilia are encountering the same problems. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate to find a solution."

Another piece of positive news for Aprilia is that the upcoming Misano round, which is their home event, is expected to have significantly better traction.

Explore Further

Breaking News

Breaking News

Website Map

Crash.Net

©1999-2024 Crash Media Group

It is prohibited to reproduce this text, as well as any photographs or illustrations, either in full or in part, by any means.