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

Disastrous Aprilia Weekend, Humiliating Aragon MotoGP Race

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 placed them just behind Marc Marquez.

Despite rain on Friday and Saturday nights, which left the area muddy, they struggled.

At first, Espargaro and Vinales trailing Marquez's pole position time by a massive 2.9 seconds and 3.7 seconds respectively seemed like an unusual event.

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

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

In his final appearance at the Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish the race on Sunday but trailed Marquez by a substantial 40.6 seconds, placing him in tenth position.

“I did everything I could, but nothing seemed to work, and we ended up more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating,” Espargaro commented. “Once again, I nearly couldn't keep my balance on the bike, but we managed to secure a top ten finish, so at least we earned some points.”

Espargaro acknowledged that they couldn't get the tires to function properly. He explained that his main concern was preventing a crash rather than focusing on performance. He added that it was challenging to even touch his knee to 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 need to understand what went wrong."

Vinales faced an even tougher situation, immediately falling to last place at the start of Sunday's race. He stayed there, ahead of only Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he retired just before reaching the halfway point of the race.

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

"We struggled with making the tires function properly. I felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly because of the rear tire," Vinales explained.

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

Struggling to get the tires to perform on a challenging track surface, Marquez's winning time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years prior. This issue mirrored past problems Aprilia has faced when using slick tires in wet conditions. "It was a terrible weekend," stated team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite low grip, but then we lost our direction and finished about four seconds off our best times."

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

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

"Today was extremely challenging," Fernandez stated. "I'm not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I completed three laps with decent grip, despite some graining on the tires. However, today, I had no grip at all."

"I had no traction and felt like I was driving on ice for the entire race, which caused me to make numerous errors."

“That race was among the toughest I’ve ever experienced. The one good thing is that all of us on the Aprilia team are encountering the same challenges. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate to figure out the best way forward.”

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

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