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

Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia: Espargaro and Vinales Struggle at Aragon MotoGP

Aleix Espargaro ends the race 40 seconds behind Marc Marquez, calling it "embarrassing," while Maverick Vinales drops out halfway through the event.

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

Overnight rain on both Friday and Saturday left them struggling due to the muddy conditions.

At first, the significant gaps of 2.9 seconds for Espargaro and 3.7 seconds for Vinales behind Marquez's pole position time in qualifying seemed like an unusual event.

However, this gap was evident in the Sprint race, as Vinales ended up in 19th place, 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. He experienced wheelspin on the less clean side of the starting grid and then made contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio's bike.

In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish but trailed Marquez by an "embarrassing" 40.6 seconds, placing him in tenth position.

"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 humiliating," Espargaro stated. "I nearly couldn't stay on the bike again, but at least we made it into the top ten and earned some points."

Espargaro admitted that they couldn't get the tires to function properly. He mentioned that his main concern was preventing crashes rather than focusing on speed, and he found it challenging to even touch his knee to the ground.

"I wasn't able to tilt the bike into the curves. It was an unusual and challenging scenario for us to come to terms with. We need to understand what went wrong."

It was an even tougher day for Vinales, who fell to the last position right at the start of Sunday's race. He stayed there, with the exception of pit lane starter Luca Marini, until he retired shortly before the race's halfway point.

The fastest lap of the COTA race winner was 2.7 seconds behind Marquez's best time.

"We struggled with the tyres, and it felt like I was on the brink 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 came to a halt and nothing seemed to work thereafter."

Struggling to get the tires to perform on a challenging track surface, resulting in a race time for Marquez that was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years prior, appeared to echo past issues Aprilia has faced when using slick tires 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 about four seconds slower than our top times."

"We should use this poor performance as motivation to persist in our analysis and development efforts for the upcoming races, beginning with Misano."

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who secured fifth place in the Sprint, unfortunately crashed on the first lap of the grand prix. Meanwhile, his teammate Raul Fernandez ended up in 16th place after receiving a penalty for tyre pressure.

"Today was extremely challenging," Fernandez remarked. "I'm not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with decent traction, followed by significant tire wear. However, today, I had no grip at all."

"I couldn't get any traction; it felt like I was racing on ice the whole time, which led to 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 problems. With four riders offering feedback, we can collaborate to find a solution.”

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

Continue Reading

Breaking News

Breaking News

Website Map

Crash.Net

©1999-2024 Crash Media Group

It is prohibited to reproduce text, photos, or illustrations, either in full or in part, in any manner.