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

Challenging weekend for Aprilia, disappointing performance at Aragon MotoGP

Aleix Espargaro trails Marc Marquez by 40 seconds, while Maverick Vinales exits the race halfway through.

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

Despite the rain on both Friday and Saturday nights, which left them struggling, they continued to persevere.

Initially, the massive gaps of 2.9 seconds for Espargaro and 3.7 seconds for Vinales behind Marquez's pole position time in qualifying appeared to be an anomaly.

However, the gap was evident during the Sprint race, with Vinales ending up in 19th place, finishing last and 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 on the less clean side of the grid and subsequently made contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.

In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish on Sunday but found himself a disappointing 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, ending up in tenth place.

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

Espargaro acknowledged their struggles with the tyres, stating, "We couldn't get them to function properly." He added that his main concern shifted to preventing a crash rather than enhancing performance, and noted that it was challenging to even get his knee down.

"I couldn't manage to tilt the bike into the curves. It 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 even more dire for Vinales, who immediately fell to the last position at the start of Sunday's race. Except for Luca Marini, who began from the pit lane, Vinales stayed at the rear until he withdrew from the race just before reaching the halfway mark.

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

"We struggled with making the tyres perform well. It felt like I was about to lose control at every corner, particularly with the back tyre," Vinales mentioned.

"The weekend proved challenging for both Aprilia and myself. Despite a strong showing on Friday, things took a downturn and we couldn't maintain that momentum."

Struggling to get the tires to perform on a challenging track – with Marquez's race victory time being 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years prior – appeared to echo Aprilia's past issues when using slick tires in wet conditions. "It was a terrible weekend," said team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick even with low grip, but then we lost our direction, finishing around four seconds slower than our best times."

"This poor showing should encourage us to keep analyzing and working on improvements as we prepare for the next races, beginning with Misano."

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint, was involved in an accident during the first lap of the grand prix. Meanwhile, his teammate Raul Fernandez ended up in 16th place after receiving a penalty for tyre pressure.

“Today was extremely challenging,” Fernandez remarked. “I’m not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with decent traction, although the tires started to wear out significantly. However, today was completely different; I had no grip at all.”

"I struggled with traction throughout the race and felt like I was driving on ice, which led to numerous errors."

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

In other positive developments for Aprilia, the upcoming home race at Misano this weekend is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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