Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro and Vinales Struggle in ‘Embarrassing’ MotoGP Race

Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia, Disappointing Aragon MotoGP Performance

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

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

Despite the rain that fell overnight on both Friday and Saturday, leaving them struggling.

In the beginning, the fact that Espargaro was 2.9 seconds and Vinales was 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, with Vinales ending up in 19th place, trailing behind Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which averages to 3.4 seconds per lap.

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

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

"I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to go right, and we ended up more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite shameful," Espargaro stated. "Once again, I struggled to stay on the bike, but finishing in the top ten means we at least earned some points."

Espargaro admitted that they couldn't get the tires to perform properly. He added that he concentrated more on preventing crashes than on achieving optimal performance, and even found it hard to get his knee to touch the ground.

"I couldn't even tilt the bike into the curves. It was an unusual and unfamiliar experience for us, which is difficult to come to terms with. We have to understand what went wrong."

Vinales faced an even tougher situation, falling to the last position right from the first lap of Sunday's race. He stayed there, apart from Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he withdrew from the race just before reaching the halfway point.

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

"We struggled to make the tyres function properly. It felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly with the rear tyre," Vinales stated.

"Aprilia and I faced a challenging weekend; despite a strong showing on Friday, everything went downhill afterward."

Struggling to get the tires to perform on a challenging track – with Marquez's race time being 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years prior – appeared to echo earlier issues Aprilia has faced when using slick tires in wet conditions. "It was a terrible weekend," stated team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite having little grip, but then we lost our direction, finishing about four seconds off our best times."

"This poor showing should inspire us to persist with our analysis and development efforts as we look ahead to the upcoming races, beginning 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 improper tire pressure.

"Today was extremely challenging," Fernandez commented. "I'm not entirely sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with decent traction before experiencing significant tyre graining. However, today, I didn't have any grip at all."

"I had no traction during the race; it felt as if I was constantly racing on ice, which led me to make numerous errors."

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

Another piece of positive news for Aprilia is that the Misano race this weekend, being on their home turf, is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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