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

Disastrous Aprilia Weekend and Aragon MotoGP Race Described as "Embarrassing"

Aleix Espargaro trails 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.

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

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

However, 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 translates 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.

In his final Aragon race prior to 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 be effective, and we ended up more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating,” Espargaro remarked. “Once again, I struggled to even remain on the bike, 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 concentrated more on preventing a crash than on optimizing performance. It was hard just to get my knee down.”

“I couldn’t properly navigate the bike through the 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.”

Vinales faced an even tougher situation, falling to the last position right from the start of Sunday's race. He stayed there, except for Luca Marini who began from the pit lane, until he retired shortly before reaching the halfway point of the race.

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

Vinales mentioned that they struggled to make the tyres function effectively, and it felt like he was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly due to issues with the rear tyre.

"It turned out to be a tough weekend for both Aprilia and myself. Despite a strong showing on Friday, everything seemed to fall apart afterward."

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 appeared to mirror past problems Aprilia faced when using slick tyres in wet conditions. "It was a terrible weekend," said team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite limited grip, but then we lost our direction and ended up around four seconds off our best times."

"We need to use this poor performance as inspiration to keep analyzing and improving our efforts for the future races, starting with Misano."

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint, suffered a crash on the first lap of the grand prix, while his teammate Raul Fernandez ended up in 16th place due to a penalty for tyre pressure.

“Today was extremely challenging,” Fernandez remarked. “I’m not entirely sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with decent grip before experiencing significant tyre graining. However, today, the grip was completely absent.”

"I struggled with traction throughout the race, feeling as if I was constantly driving on ice, which led to numerous errors."

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

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

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