Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro and Vinales Suffer Embarrassing MotoGP Weekend

April was a disastrous weekend for Aprilia, highlighted by a humiliating performance at the Aragon MotoGP race. Aleix Espargaro ended up trailing Marc Marquez by a staggering 40 seconds, while Maverick Vinales withdrew halfway through the race.

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

Overnight rain on Friday and Saturday left them struggling.

Initially, it seemed unusual that Espargaro and Vinales were trailing Marquez's pole position time by a significant 2.9 seconds and 3.7 seconds, respectively, during qualifying.

The gap was evident during the Sprint race, with Vinales ending up in 19th place, which was last, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, averaging a 3.4-second lag per lap.

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

In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish but was a disappointing 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, landing in tenth position.

"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 stated. "Once more, I struggled to stay on the bike, but at least we managed a top ten finish and earned some points."

Espargaro admitted, “We couldn’t get the tires to function properly. My main concern was preventing a crash rather than optimizing performance. It was challenging just to get my knee to touch the ground."

"I wasn't able to lean into the corners with the bike. It was an unusual and unfamiliar experience for us, and it's difficult to come to terms with. We have to understand what went wrong."

Vinales faced greater challenges, immediately falling to the last position during the first lap of Sunday's race. He stayed there, only ahead of Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he withdrew shortly before the race's 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. It felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly with the rear tire," Vinales commented.

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

The challenge of getting the tyres to perform on a difficult track – evident in Marquez’s race win being 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's time two years prior – appeared to mirror past issues Aprilia has faced when using slick tyres on wet surfaces. "It was a terrible weekend," said team leader Massimo Rivola. "We were quick on Friday despite low grip, but then we lost our direction and ended up about four seconds off our best times."

"This poor showing should inspire us to persist with our analysis and development efforts as we prepare for the upcoming races, beginning with Misano."

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint, unfortunately crashed during 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 remarked. "I'm not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with decent traction, followed by significant tyre graining. However, today, I couldn't get any grip at all."

"I had no traction and it felt like I was racing on ice the entire time, which caused me to make numerous errors."

“That race was among the toughest I’ve ever experienced… The one good thing is that all of us at Aprilia are encountering the same problems. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate to figure out a solution.”

A positive update for Aprilia is that the Misano round happening this weekend, which is their home event, is expected to provide significantly better traction.

Explore Further

Breaking News

Recent Updates

Site Map

Crash.Net

©1999-2024 Crash Media Group

No part of the text, photos, or images may be reproduced in whole or in part, regardless of the method.