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

Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia, Disappointing Aragon MotoGP Performance

Aleix Espargaro ended the race trailing Marc Marquez by a staggering 40 seconds, while Maverick Vinales withdrew halfway through the event.

Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales concluded Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon with only Marc Marquez recording faster times.

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

At first glance, the significant gaps of 2.9 seconds for Espargaro and 3.7 seconds for Vinales behind Marquez’s pole position time in the qualifying session seemed like an unusual anomaly.

The gap was evident during the Sprint race, where Vinales ended up in 19th place and last, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, averaging 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro failed to make it past the first turn as he experienced wheelspin on the grid's dirty side and subsequently made contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.

In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish but came in a "disappointing" 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, placing tenth.

“I gave it my all, but unfortunately, nothing seemed to work, and we ended up more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating,” Espargaro mentioned. “Once more, I struggled to stay on the bike, but at least we secured a top ten finish and earned some points.”

Espargaro acknowledged that they couldn't get the tires to function properly. He mentioned that his main concern was to prevent crashes rather than to improve performance. He added that even getting his knee to touch the ground was challenging.

"I wasn't able to lean into the bike's turns. This was an unusual and unfamiliar scenario for us, and it's tough to come to terms with. We need to understand what went wrong."

The situation was even more dire for Vinales, who immediately fell to the last position at the start of Sunday’s race. He stayed there (except for Luca Marini, who began 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.

"We struggled to get the tires to perform properly. It felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly due to the rear tire," Vinales mentioned.

"The weekend was challenging 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, highlighted by Marquez finishing 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini did two years prior, seemed to echo earlier issues Aprilia has faced when using slick tires in wet conditions. "It was a terrible weekend," stated team leader Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite limited grip, but we then lost our direction, ultimately ending up roughly four seconds off our best times."

"This poor showing should drive us to keep analyzing and improving as we prepare for the next races, beginning with Misano."

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint, suffered a crash on the first lap of the grand prix. Meanwhile, 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 to complete three laps with decent traction before experiencing significant tyre graining. However, today I had no grip at all.”

"I struggled with 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 in the Aprilia team are encountering the same challenges. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate effectively to identify a solution."

In additional positive news for Aprilia, the upcoming home race at Misano this weekend is expected to provide significantly better grip.

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