Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro and Vinales Struggle Amid ‘Embarrassing’ Race Results

Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia, Disgraceful Aragon MotoGP Performance

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

Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales wrapped up Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon in second and third place, trailing just behind Marc Marquez in the rankings.

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

Initially, it seemed unusual that Espargaro was 2.9 seconds and Vinales was 3.7 seconds slower than Marquez's pole position time in qualifying.

However, the gap 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 averages to a 3.4-second lag per lap

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

In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish on Sunday, but he was an "embarrassing" 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, placing tenth.

"I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to work, and we ended up over 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating," Espargaro remarked. "Once more, I could barely keep the bike upright, but at least we made it into the top ten and grabbed some points."

Espargaro admitted they struggled with the tyres, saying, "We couldn't get the tyres to function properly." He emphasized that he was more concerned with preventing crashes than with achieving good performance. He also mentioned that it was challenging to get his knee to touch the ground.

"I wasn't able to tilt the bike during turns. This experience was unfamiliar and unusual for us, making it difficult to come to terms with. We need to understand what went wrong."

Vinales faced an even tougher situation, falling to the last position right from the first lap on Sunday. He stayed there, except for 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 slower than Marquez's best lap.

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

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

Struggling to get the tyres to perform on a challenging track – Marquez’s winning race time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's two years prior – appeared to echo past issues Aprilia has had when using slicks in wet conditions. "A dreadful weekend," stated team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite the limited grip, but then we lost our direction, finishing around four seconds slower than our top times."

"We should use this poor performance as a drive to keep analyzing and improving ahead of the next races, starting 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 tyre pressure.

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

"I struggled with traction throughout the race, feeling as if I were driving on ice, which led to numerous errors."

"It was among the toughest races I've ever experienced… The silver lining is that all of us in the Aprilia team are encountering the same challenges. With four riders contributing their input, we can collaborate effectively to identify a solution."

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

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