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

Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia at Aragon MotoGP

Aleix Espargaro ends the race trailing Marc Marquez by a staggering 40 seconds, while Maverick Vinales withdraws halfway through.

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

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

At first glance, the fact that Espargaro and Vinales were trailing Marquez’s pole position time by a staggering 2.9 seconds and 3.7 seconds respectively seemed like an anomaly.

The gap was evident in the Sprint race, with Vinales coming in 19th and last place, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which averages to 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro failed to make it past the first turn, experiencing wheelspin due to starting on the dirty side of the grid and then making contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio's bike.

Participating in his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish on Sunday but was a "humiliating" 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, securing the tenth position.

"I put in my best effort, but nothing seemed to work, and we ended up more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating," Espargaro commented. "Once more, I could barely stay on the bike, but at least we finished in the top ten and earned some points."

Espargaro admitted that they struggled to get the tires to function properly. He explained that his main concern was preventing a crash rather than achieving high performance, and even getting his knee to touch the ground proved challenging.

"I wasn't able to navigate the bike through turns at all. This was an unusual and unfamiliar experience for us, and it's difficult to come to terms with. We need to understand what went wrong."

The situation was dire for Vinales, who fell to the very last position at the start of Sunday's race. He stayed there, with the exception of Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he withdrew from the race just before reaching the halfway mark.

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

“We struggled to get the tyres functioning properly. It felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly with the rear tyre,” Vinales stated.

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

The challenge of getting the tires to perform on a difficult track surface – Marquez's race-winning time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's time two years prior – appeared to mirror past issues 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 having little grip, but then we lost our momentum and ended up about four seconds off our best times."

"This poor showing should encourage us to persist with our analysis and development efforts as we look ahead to the forthcoming 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, while his team-mate Raul Fernandez ended up in 16th place due to a penalty for tyre pressure.

“Today was incredibly challenging,” Fernandez commented. “I’m not entirely sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with decent traction, but then the tires started to wear out. However, today, I had no grip at all.”

"I couldn't get a good hold; it felt like I was racing on ice the entire time, which led to numerous errors."

"That race was among the toughest I've ever experienced… The silver lining is that everyone in the Aprilia team is encountering the same challenges. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate to determine the best way forward."

Another piece of positive news for Aprilia is that the upcoming home event at Misano this weekend is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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