**Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro and Vinales Struggle as Marquez Dominates**

Disastrous Aprilia weekend, shameful performance at Aragon MotoGP

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

Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales concluded Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon with only Marc Marquez ahead of them in the rankings.

Despite the overnight rain on both Friday and Saturday, which left them struggling.

In the beginning, Espargaro and Vinales being 2.9 and 3.7 seconds slower than Marquez's pole position time in qualifying seemed like an unusual event.

However, the gap was evident during the Sprint race, as Vinales ended up in 19th place, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which translates to 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro, on the other hand, couldn't make it past the first turn due to experiencing wheelspin on the dusty side of the starting grid before he made contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio's bike.

In his final Aragon race before retirement, Espargaro managed to finish on Sunday but ended up in tenth place, trailing Marquez by an "embarrassing" 40.6 seconds.

"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 commented. "Once again, I could barely keep myself on the bike, but at least we managed to finish in the top ten and earn some points."

“We couldn’t get the tires to function properly,” Espargaro stated. “My main concern was preventing a crash rather than achieving high performance. It was challenging just to get my knee to touch the ground.”

"I wasn't able to tilt the bike into the corners. It was an unusual and unfamiliar experience for us, and it's difficult to come to terms with. We have to understand what went wrong."

The situation was even more challenging for Vinales, who fell to the last position right from the first lap on Sunday. He stayed there, with the exception of Luca Marini who had started from the pit lane, until he withdrew from the race shortly before reaching the halfway point.

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

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

"The weekend was 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 surface – Marquez’s winning time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's two years prior – appeared to echo 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 low grip, but then we lost our direction and ended up around four seconds off our best times."

"This poor performance should drive us to keep analyzing and developing as we prepare for the upcoming races, beginning with Misano."

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint race, experienced a crash on the first lap of the grand prix. His teammate, Raul Fernandez, ended up in 16th place due to a penalty related to tyre pressure.

"Today was extremely challenging," Fernandez remarked. "I'm not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with decent traction, followed by significant tire wear. But today, I had no grip at all."

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

"That race was among the toughest I've ever experienced. The silver lining is that all of us at Aprilia are encountering the same challenges. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate effectively to determine the way forward."

Another positive update for Aprilia is that the upcoming Misano event this weekend, being on their home turf, is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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