### Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro and Vinales Struggle with “Embarrassing” Performance in Challenging MotoGP Weekend

Terrible weekend for Aprilia, embarrassing MotoGP race in Aragon

Aleix Espargaro ends up 40 seconds behind Marc Marquez, while Maverick Vinales withdraws halfway through the race.

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

Nevertheless, the overnight showers on both Friday and Saturday left them struggling.

Initially, it seemed extraordinary that Espargaro and Vinales were trailing behind Marquez’s pole time by a massive 2.9 and 3.7 seconds, respectively, in the qualifying session.

However, this gap was evident in the Sprint race, where Vinales ended up in 19th place, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which equated to 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro, on the other hand, failed to make it past the first turn. He experienced wheelspin on the less clean side of the starting grid and then made contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio's bike.

In his final Aragon race before retirement, Espargaro managed to finish on Sunday but ended up in tenth place, trailing Marquez by a significant 40.6 seconds, which he described as "embarrassing."

"I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to work, and we ended up over 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating," Espargaro remarked. "Once again, I struggled to remain on the bike, but we managed to secure a top ten finish and earn some points."

Espargaro admitted that they faced challenges with the tyres, saying, "We couldn't get the tyres to perform properly." He explained that his primary concern was preventing crashes rather than enhancing performance, adding that even getting his knee to touch the ground was a struggle.

"I wasn't able to tilt the bike into the turns. It was an unusual and challenging experience for us, and it's difficult to come to terms with. We need to understand what went wrong."

The situation was even more challenging for Vinales, who immediately fell to the last position during the first lap on Sunday. He stayed there, ahead of only Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he withdrew from the race shortly before reaching the halfway point.

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

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

"The weekend proved challenging for both Aprilia and myself. Despite performing well on Friday, everything seemed to fall apart afterward."

The challenge of getting the tyres to perform on a difficult track surface was evident, as Marquez’s race-winning time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's time from two years prior. This issue seemed to mirror past struggles 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 momentum and ended up about four seconds off our best times."

“This poor showing should inspire us to keep analyzing and improving as we look ahead to the next races, beginning with Misano.”

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint, unfortunately went down 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 stated. “I’m not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed to complete three laps with relatively decent traction and then experienced significant tire graining. However, today, I had no grip at all.”

"I couldn't get any traction and it felt like I was racing on ice the whole time, so I ended up making a lot of 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 input, we can collaborate to find a solution."

Another positive development for Aprilia is the expectation of significantly better traction at this weekend’s home race in Misano.

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