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

Disastrous weekend for Aprilia at Aragon MotoGP

Aleix Espargaro ends up trailing Marc Marquez by a staggering 40 seconds, 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.

Nonetheless, the overnight rain on both Friday and Saturday nights left them struggling.

Initially, it appeared unusual when Espargaro and Vinales were significantly slower than Marquez's pole position time in qualifying, trailing by 2.9 seconds and 3.7 seconds, respectively.

However, the gap was evident in the Sprint race, where Vinales ended up in 19th place, coming in last and trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which averages to 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro, on the other hand, failed to make it past the first turn after experiencing wheelspin due to being on the dirty side of the track and then colliding with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.

In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish, but he was a disappointing 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, securing only tenth place.

Espargaro expressed his frustration, 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 again, I struggled to remain on the bike, but at least we managed to secure a top ten finish and earn some points."

“We couldn't get the tires to function properly,” Espargaro stated. “My main concern was preventing a crash rather than focusing on speed. It was tough to even touch my knee to the ground.”

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

The situation was even more dire for Vinales, who immediately fell to the back of the pack on the first lap of Sunday’s race. He stayed in that position, with the exception of pit lane starter Luca Marini, until he withdrew from the race shortly before the halfway point.

The fastest lap of the COTA winner 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 stated.

"The weekend turned out to be challenging for both Aprilia and myself. Despite a strong showing on Friday, everything fell apart after that."

Struggling to get the tyres to perform on a challenging track surface, Marquez's race-winning time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years prior. This issue mirrored past problems Aprilia has faced when using slick tyres in wet conditions. "It was a terrible weekend," said team principal 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 inspire us to keep analyzing and improving 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 after receiving a penalty for tyre pressure issues.

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

"I couldn't get a good hold, it felt like I was racing on ice the entire time, leading to numerous errors."

“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 have four times the input, which allows us to collaborate and find a solution together.”

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

Explore Further

Breaking News

Breaking News

Site Map

Crash.Net

©1999-2024 Crash Media Group

It is prohibited to reproduce any part of the text, photographs, or illustrations, whether in whole or in part, in any manner.