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

Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia, Aragon MotoGP Race Deemed "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 posting faster times than them.

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

Initially, the fact that Espargaro was 2.9 seconds and Vinales was 3.7 seconds slower than Marquez’s pole position time in qualifying seemed like an unusual event.

However, this shortfall was evident during the Sprint race, as Vinales ended up in 19th place, which was the last position, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, averaging a gap of 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro's race ended early as he struggled with wheelspin on the less clean side of the starting grid, causing him to collide with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio at the first turn.

In his final Aragon race before retirement, Espargaro managed to finish on Sunday but found himself in a "humiliating" tenth place, trailing Marquez by 40.6 seconds.

"I did everything I could, but nothing seems to be effective, and we ended up more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating," Espargaro commented. "Once more, I struggled to remain on the bike, but at least we secured a top ten finish and earned some points."

Espargaro admitted that they couldn't get the tires to function properly. He said he concentrated more on preventing crashes than on actual performance, and it was challenging for him to even get his knee to touch the ground.

"I found it impossible to navigate the bike through 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."

The situation was tougher for Vinales, who fell to the last position right from the start of Sunday's race. He stayed there, with the exception of Luca Marini who began from the pit lane, until he pulled out of the race just before reaching the halfway point.

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

"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 stated.

"Aprilia and I faced a challenging weekend; despite a strong showing on Friday, things took a turn for the worse."

The challenge of getting the tyres to perform on a difficult track – evidenced by Marquez's race time being 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's time from two years prior – seemed to echo past issues Aprilia has faced when using slick tyres in wet conditions. "A terrible weekend," said team boss Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite having little grip, but then we lost our direction and ended up being around four seconds off our best times."

"This poor showing should inspire us to keep analyzing and refining our efforts as we prepare for the next races, beginning with Misano."

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

"Today was extremely challenging," Fernandez remarked. "I can't quite grasp what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with decent traction, although the tires developed significant graining. However, today, I had no grip at all."

"I lacked traction and felt like I was racing on ice the entire time, which led to numerous errors."

"It was one of the toughest races I've ever experienced… The good thing is that all of us at Aprilia are dealing with the same challenges. There are four of us, each providing input, which helps us collaborate and find a way forward together."

In other positive developments for Aprilia, the upcoming Misano event, which is on their home turf, is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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