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

Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia, Humiliating Performance at Aragon MotoGP

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 times that were second only to Marc Marquez.

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

At first, it seemed unusual that Espargaro and Vinales were significantly slower than Marquez in qualifying, with respective gaps of 2.9 seconds and 3.7 seconds behind his pole time.

However, the gap became evident during the Sprint race when 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, couldn't make it past the first turn due to wheelspin caused by starting on the less clean side of the grid, and subsequently made contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.

In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish but ended up in tenth place, trailing Marquez by a significant 40.6 seconds, which he described as "embarrassing."

“I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to click, and we ended up over 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating,” Espargaro mentioned. “Once more, I nearly lost control of the bike, but at least we managed to secure a top-ten finish and earned some points.”

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

"I wasn't able to tilt the bike while turning. It was an unusual and difficult scenario for us to deal with. We have to understand what went wrong."

The situation was even more dire for Vinales, who immediately fell to the last position during the first lap of Sunday’s race. He stayed there, with the exception of Luca Marini who began from the pit lane, until he retired shortly before reaching the halfway point of the race.

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

“We struggled with the tyres. It felt like I was about to lose control on every corner, particularly with the rear tyre,” Vinales mentioned.

"The weekend proved challenging for both Aprilia and myself. Despite a strong showing on Friday, everything ceased functioning properly afterward."

The struggle to get the tires to perform on a challenging track – Marquez's race-winning time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years prior – appeared to echo past issues Aprilia has had when using slicks on wet surfaces. "A terrible weekend," said team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite having little grip, but then we lost our direction, finishing about four seconds slower than our best times."

"This poor showing should drive us to keep up our analysis and development efforts as we prepare for the upcoming races, beginning with Misano."

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint, was involved in a crash during 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 entirely sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with relatively decent traction, although I experienced significant tire graining afterward. However, today, I had no grip at all.”

"I struggled to maintain traction throughout the race, feeling as if I were driving on ice, which led to numerous errors on my part."

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

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

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