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

Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia, Shameful Performance at Aragon MotoGP

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

Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales concluded Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon with times second only to Marc Marquez.

Nonetheless, heavy rains that fell overnight on both Friday and Saturday left them struggling.

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

The gap was evident during the Sprint race, with Vinales ending up in 19th place, the last position, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which breaks down to 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro did not make it past the first turn. His race was hindered by wheelspin on the less grippy side of the track, causing him to collide with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio’s bike.

Participating in his final Aragon race before retiring, 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 over 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating," Espargaro commented. "Once more, I nearly couldn't keep the bike under control, but at least we secured a top ten finish and earned some points."

“We couldn’t get the tires to function properly,” Espargaro stated. “I was more concerned with preventing a crash than with how I was performing. It was challenging just to get my knee to touch the ground.”

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

The situation was particularly dire for Vinales, who fell to the last position right at the start of Sunday's race. He stayed there, with the exception of Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he decided to retire shortly before reaching the halfway mark of the race.

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

"We struggled to get the tires to function properly. It felt like I was about to lose control at every corner, particularly because of the rear tire," Vinales stated.

"The weekend proved challenging for both Aprilia and myself. Although Friday showed promise with strong performance, everything seemed to fall apart afterward."

Struggling to get the tyres to perform on a challenging track – Marquez's victory was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's time two years prior – appeared to echo earlier issues Aprilia faced when racing on slicks in wet conditions. "A terrible weekend," stated team boss Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite limited grip, but then we lost our direction, finishing roughly four seconds off our best times."

"This poor showing should drive us to keep analyzing and improving as we prepare for the upcoming 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 incredibly challenging," Fernandez remarked. "I'm not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with fairly decent traction, but then the tires started to develop a lot of graining. However, today, I couldn't get any grip at all."

"I struggled to get a good hold and felt as if I were skating on ice throughout the entire race, which led to numerous errors."

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

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

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