Moto GP
Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro and Vinales Struggle in ‘Embarrassing’ MotoGP Race
Disastrous weekend for Aprilia, humiliating performance at Aragon MotoGP
Aleix Espargaro ends the race 40 seconds behind Marc Marquez, while Maverick Vinales exits halfway through.
Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales ended Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon with only Marc Marquez posting faster times.
Nevertheless, the overnight rain on both Friday and Saturday left them struggling.
Initially, a gap 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 gap was evident during the Sprint race, with Vinales ending in 19th place, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which amounts to 3.4 seconds per lap.
Espargaro, on the other hand, failed to make it past the first turn. He experienced wheelspin due to being on the dirty side of the grid and subsequently made contact 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 he found himself a disappointing 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, securing a tenth-place finish.
“I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to work, and we ended up more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is really embarrassing," said Espargaro. "Once more, I could barely stay on the bike, but we managed a top ten finish and picked up some points.”
Espargaro admitted that they struggled to get the tires to function properly. He mentioned that his main concern was preventing a crash rather than focusing on performance. He also noted that it was challenging to get his knee to touch the ground.
"I wasn't able to navigate the bike through turns. This experience was unusual and difficult for us to come to terms with. We need to understand what went wrong."
Matters were even more challenging for Vinales, who immediately fell to the last position during the first lap on Sunday. He stayed there, ahead of only Luca Marini who began from the pit lane, until he withdrew from the race shortly before the halfway point.
The fastest lap of the race winner at COTA was 2.7 seconds slower than Marquez's best lap.
"We struggled to make the tyres function properly. I felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly with the rear tyre," Vinales stated.
"The weekend proved challenging for both Aprilia and myself. Despite a strong showing on Friday, everything stopped functioning properly afterward."
The struggle to get the tires to perform well on a challenging track – with Marquez’s race time being 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years prior – appeared to mirror earlier issues Aprilia has faced when using slick tires in wet conditions. "It was a terrible weekend," said team boss Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite having little grip, but then we lost our momentum, finishing about four seconds slower than our best times."
"This poor showing should drive us to persist in our evaluation and improvement efforts as we prepare for the upcoming races, beginning with Misano."
Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint, experienced a crash during 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 entirely sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed to complete three laps with decent traction, although I did experience some tyre graining. However, today, the grip was completely absent.”
"I couldn't get any traction and it felt like I was racing on ice the whole time, which caused me to make many errors."
"That race was among the toughest I've ever experienced… The bright side is that all of us at Aprilia are encountering the same challenges. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate effectively to find a solution."
For Aprilia, another positive update is that the Misano round at their home circuit this weekend is expected to provide significantly better traction.
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