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

Disastrous Aprilia Weekend, Humiliating Aragon MotoGP Race

Aleix Espargaro ends up trailing Marc Marquez by an 'embarrassing' 40 seconds, while Maverick Vinales withdraws midway through the race.

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

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

In the beginning, it seemed unusual that Espargaro was 2.9 seconds and Vinales 3.7 seconds slower than Marquez’s pole position time during qualifying.

However, Vinales' gap was evident in the Sprint race, concluding in 19th place, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which translates 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, which led to him hitting the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio's bike.

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

Espargaro expressed his frustration by stating, "I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to be effective, and we ended up over 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating. Once more, I struggled to keep control of the bike, but at least we managed a top ten finish and earned some points."

Espargaro admitted that they couldn't get the tires to function properly. His main concern shifted to preventing crashes rather than improving performance, and he found it challenging to even get his knee to touch the ground.

"I couldn't even tilt the bike during turns. It was an unusual and unfamiliar scenario for us, which is difficult to come to terms with. We need to understand what went wrong."

The situation was grimmer for Vinales, who immediately fell to the last position at the start of Sunday's race. He stayed there, except for Luca Marini who began 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 lap.

"We struggled with the tyres' performance. I felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly because of the rear tyre," Vinales stated.

"The weekend proved challenging for both Aprilia and myself. Despite a strong showing on Friday, everything seemed to fall apart afterward."

The struggle to get the tires to perform on a challenging track surface – with Marquez’s winning race time being 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years prior – appeared to mirror past issues Aprilia has faced when using slick tires in wet conditions. "A terrible weekend," said team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite having little grip, but then we lost our direction, finishing around four seconds behind our best times."

"This poor showing should drive us to persist with our analysis and development efforts as we prepare for 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 following a penalty for tyre pressure.

"Today was incredibly challenging," Fernandez remarked. "I'm not entirely sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with fairly decent traction before experiencing significant tyre graining. However, today, I had no grip at all."

"I couldn't get any traction and it felt like I was racing on ice the whole time, which caused me to make numerous errors."

"That race was among the toughest I've ever experienced… The one good thing is that everyone on the Aprilia team seems to be dealing with the same challenges. With four riders each providing feedback, we can collaborate effectively to determine the best path forward."

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

Explore Further

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

Website Navigation

Crash.Net

©1999-2024 Crash Media Group

It is prohibited to reproduce any part or the entirety of the text, images, or drawings in any manner.