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

Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia, Disappointing Aragon MotoGP Performance

Aleix Espargaro trails Marc Marquez by a staggering 40 seconds, while Maverick Vinales exits the race halfway through.

Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales concluded Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon in second and third positions, trailing just behind Marc Marquez on the leaderboard.

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

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

However, the gap was evident during the Sprint race, with Vinales coming in last at 19th place, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which averages to 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro, on the other hand, couldn’t make it past the first turn. He experienced wheelspin due to starting on the dirty side of the track and ended up hitting the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.

In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish on Sunday but was a disappointing 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, placing tenth.

“I put in my best effort, but nothing seemed to work, and we ended up more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating,” Espargaro mentioned. “Once more, I could barely remain on the bike, but at least we secured a top ten finish and earned some points.”

Espargaro stated that they couldn't make the tires function properly. He added that his main concern was preventing a crash rather than optimizing performance, and even touching his knee to the ground was a struggle.

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

Vinales had an even tougher time, falling to the back of the pack on the first lap of Sunday's race. He stayed in that position, except for overtaking Luca Marini who began from the pit lane, until he retired shortly before the halfway point of the race.

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

"We struggled to make the tires function properly. It felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly because of the rear tire," Vinales reported.

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

The challenge of getting the tyres to perform on a difficult track surface – evident as Marquez’s race-winning time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years prior – seemed to echo past issues Aprilia has faced when using slick tyres in wet conditions. "It was a terrible weekend," stated team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick even with minimal grip, but then we lost our direction, ending up about four seconds slower than our best times."

"This poor showing should drive us to persist in our analysis and developmental 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 due to a penalty for tire pressure.

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

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

“That race was among the toughest I've ever experienced… The silver lining is that everyone in the Aprilia team appears to be encountering similar challenges. With four riders providing feedback, we have four perspectives to help us collaborate and determine the best course of action.”

Another piece of positive news for Aprilia is that the upcoming Misano round, which is on their home turf, is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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