Moto GP
Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro and Vinales Struggle in ‘Embarrassing’ MotoGP Weekend
Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia, Embarrassing Performance at Aragon MotoGP
Aleix Espargaro ends the race a staggering 40 seconds behind Marc Marquez, while Maverick Vinales drops out halfway through.
Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales ended Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon with times that were surpassed only by Marc Marquez.
Nevertheless, the rain that fell overnight on both Friday and Saturday left them struggling.
Initially, the significant time gaps of 2.9 seconds for Espargaro and 3.7 seconds for Vinales behind Marquez’s pole position in qualifying seemed like an unusual anomaly.
However, the gap was evident in the Sprint race, as Vinales ended up in 19th place, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which averages to 3.4 seconds per lap.
Espargaro didn't make it past the first turn, as he experienced wheelspin on the grid's less clean side and then hit the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.
In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish but was an “embarrassing” 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, ending up in tenth place.
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 nearly couldn't stay 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 explained that his main concern was preventing a crash rather than focusing on performance, and even getting his knee to touch the ground proved to be challenging.
"I wasn't able to tilt the bike into the corners. This was an unfamiliar and challenging experience for us, and it's difficult to come to terms with. We need to investigate what went wrong."
The situation was even more dire for Vinales, who fell to the last position during the first lap on Sunday. He stayed there, except for Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he withdrew from 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.
“It was challenging to make the tyres function properly. I felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly due to the rear tyre,” Vinales stated.
"It was a challenging weekend for both Aprilia and myself. Despite a strong showing on Friday, everything fell apart afterwards."
The challenge of getting the tyres to perform on a difficult track – as shown by Marquez's race-winning time being 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini’s from two years ago – seemed to echo past issues Aprilia has faced when using slick tyres in wet conditions. "It was a terrible weekend," said team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite having little grip, but then we lost our direction and ended up about four seconds slower than our best times."
"We should use this poor showing as a catalyst to further our analysis and development efforts 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 tyre pressure.
"Today was extremely challenging," Fernandez commented. "I'm not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with decent traction before experiencing significant tire graining. However, today, I didn't have any grip at all."
"I struggled with traction throughout the entire race, feeling as if I were driving on ice, which led to numerous errors."
"That race was among the toughest I've ever experienced… The one silver lining is that all of us at Aprilia are encountering the same challenges. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate to find a solution."
Another positive update for Aprilia is that the upcoming Misano round, which is on home turf, is expected to provide significantly better traction this weekend.
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