Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro and Vinales Struggle with ‘Embarrassing’ Performance Amid Unfavorable Conditions

Disastrous Aprilia Weekend, Shameful Aragon MotoGP Performance

Aleix Espargaro ends up trailing Marc Marquez by a humiliating 40 seconds, while Maverick Vinales drops out halfway through the race.

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

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

Initially, it appeared unusual that Espargaro was 2.9 seconds and Vinales was 3.7 seconds slower than Marquez's pole position time in qualifying.

However, the gap was evident in the Sprint race, with Vinales ending up in 19th place, trailing behind Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which averages to 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro failed to get past the first turn, experiencing wheelspin on the less clean side of the starting grid and subsequently making contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.

In his final Aragon race prior to retiring, Espargaro managed to finish, but he was a disappointing 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, placing tenth.

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 struggled to stay on the bike, but at least we managed to secure a top-ten finish and earn some points."

Espargaro admitted that they had trouble getting the tires to function properly. He emphasized that his main concern was preventing crashes rather than optimizing performance. He also mentioned that it was challenging to even get his knee to touch the ground.

“I wasn’t able to lean into the corners with the motorcycle. It was an unusual and unfamiliar experience for us, which is difficult to come to terms with. We need to understand what went wrong.”

The situation was more dire for Vinales, who fell to the very last position on the first lap of Sunday’s race. He stayed there, except for pit lane starter Luca Marini, until he retired shortly before the halfway point of the race.

The fastest lap of the COTA winner was 2.7 seconds behind 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 with the rear tire," Vinales stated.

"It was a tough weekend for both Aprilia and myself. Despite a strong showing on Friday, everything went downhill afterward."

The struggle to get the tyres to perform on a challenging track – Marquez's winning race time was 12 seconds behind Enea Bastianini's from two years prior – appeared to mirror past issues Aprilia faced when using slicks on wet surfaces. "A terrible weekend," said team boss Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite having little grip, but then we lost our momentum and ended up roughly four seconds slower than our best times."

"We need to use this poor performance as motivation 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, unfortunately fell during the first lap of the grand prix. Meanwhile, his teammate Raul Fernandez ended up in 16th place due to 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 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."

"It was among the toughest races I've ever experienced… The one good thing is that all of us on the Aprilia team are encountering the same problems. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate and find a solution together."

Another positive development for Aprilia is that the upcoming Misano race this weekend, held on their home turf, is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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