Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro Calls Finish ‘Embarrassing,’ Vinales Forced to Retire in Disastrous MotoGP Weekend

Disastrous Aprilia weekend, humiliating Aragon MotoGP event

Aleix Espargaro ends up 40 seconds behind Marc Marquez in a mortifying result, while Maverick Vinales withdraws midway through the race.

Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales completed Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon with only Marc Marquez ahead of them in the rankings.

Despite rainfall on both Friday and Saturday nights, they struggled due to the muddy conditions.

At first, it seemed unusual that Espargaro trailed Marquez's pole position time by a massive 2.9 seconds, and Vinales by 3.7 seconds during qualifying.

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

Espargaro, on the other hand, couldn't make it past the first turn. He experienced wheelspin due to starting from the dirty side of the grid and ended up colliding with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.

Participating in his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish the race on Sunday but ended up an "embarrassing" 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, securing tenth place.

Espargaro expressed his frustration, stating, "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 secured a top ten finish and earned some points."

Espargaro stated that they couldn't get the tires to perform properly. He mentioned he was more concerned with not crashing than with how well he was riding. He even found it hard to touch his knee to the ground.

"I wasn't able to tilt the bike while cornering. This was an unusual and unexpected situation for us, and it's difficult to come to terms with. We need to investigate and understand what caused this issue."

The situation was even more dire for Vinales, who fell to the back of the pack on the first lap of Sunday's race. He stayed in that position, with the exception of Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he retired shortly before reaching the halfway point of the race.

The fastest lap of the COTA winner was 2.7 seconds behind Marquez's best time.

"We struggled with the tyres. It felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly with the rear tyre," Vinales stated.

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

Struggling to get the tyres to perform on a challenging track – as evidenced by Marquez's race time being 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's two years prior – appeared to echo past issues Aprilia had faced when using slick tyres on wet surfaces. "A dreadful weekend," stated team boss Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite the low grip, but then we lost our direction, finishing around four seconds off our best times."

“We need to use this poor performance as a driving force to further our analysis and development efforts for the upcoming races, beginning with Misano.”

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint, had an accident on the first lap of the grand prix. His teammate Raul Fernandez ended up in 16th place due to a penalty for incorrect tire pressure.

"Today's experience was extremely challenging," Fernandez expressed. "I'm not entirely sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with decent traction before experiencing significant tire graining. However, today, I had no grip at all."

"I couldn't get any traction; it felt like I was racing on ice the entire time, 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 Aprilia are encountering the same challenges. With four riders, we're providing four sets of feedback, which allows us to collaborate and determine the best way forward."

Another positive aspect for Aprilia is that the Misano round this weekend, which is their home race, is expected to provide significantly better grip.

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