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

Disastrous weekend for Aprilia at Aragon MotoGP

Aleix Espargaro ends the race 40 seconds behind Marc Marquez, while Maverick Vinales withdraws halfway through.

Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales wrapped up Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon, placing just behind Marc Marquez in the rankings.

Despite the rain that poured down on both Friday and Saturday night, leaving the area muddy, they struggled to move forward.

Initially, it seemed unusual that Espargaro and Vinales were significantly slower than Marquez in qualifying, trailing by 2.9 seconds and 3.7 seconds respectively.

However, the shortfall was evident during the Sprint race, with Vinales ending up in 19th place, which was last, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, averaging 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro's race ended early as he struggled with wheelspin on the dirty side of the grid and collided with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio's bike before he could get past Turn 1.

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

Espargaro expressed his frustration, saying, “I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to work, and we ended up more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating. Once again, I struggled to stay on the bike, but at least we managed to secure a top-ten finish and earn some points.”

Espargaro stated that they couldn't get the tires to function properly. He emphasized that his main concern was preventing a crash rather than enhancing performance. He also mentioned that even getting his knee to touch the ground was a struggle.

"I wasn't able to tilt the bike during turns. It was an unusual and unexpected experience that's difficult to come to terms with. We must determine what went wrong."

Vinales experienced an even tougher time, falling to the very end of the pack on the first lap of Sunday’s race. Except for Luca Marini, who began from the pit lane, Vinales stayed there until he retired shortly before reaching the halfway mark of the race.

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

Vinales mentioned that they struggled to get the tyres to function properly, and it felt like he was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly due to the back tyre.

"Aprilia and I faced a challenging weekend. Despite a strong showing on Friday, everything fell apart afterward."

The struggle to get the tires to perform on a challenging track surface was evident, as Marquez's race-winning time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years earlier. This seemed to mirror past issues Aprilia has faced when using slick tires on wet tracks. "A terrible weekend," stated team principal Massimo Rivola. "We were quick on Friday despite having little grip, but then we lost our direction and ended up roughly four seconds slower than our top times."

"We should use this poor showing as motivation to keep analyzing and improving our performance for the future 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. His teammate, Raul Fernandez, ended up in 16th place due to a penalty related to tyre pressure.

"Today was extremely challenging," Fernandez remarked. "I'm not entirely sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with decent traction before experiencing significant tyre graining. However, today, I didn't have any grip at all."

"I couldn't get a good hold, it felt as if I was racing on a slippery surface the entire time, leading me to make numerous errors."

"It was among the toughest races I've ever experienced… The silver lining is that all of us on the Aprilia team are encountering the same challenges. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate effectively to determine the best course of action."

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

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