Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro’s ‘Embarrassing’ Finish and Vinales’ Frustrating Retirement

Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia, Disappointing Aragon MotoGP Race

Aleix Espargaro ends the race trailing Marc Marquez by a staggering 40 seconds, while Maverick Vinales withdraws halfway through.

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

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

During the qualifying session, Espargaro and Vinales lagged significantly behind Marquez's pole time by 2.9 seconds and 3.7 seconds, respectively, which at first seemed like an unusual event.

However, the shortfall was evident in the Sprint race, with Vinales coming in 19th and placing last, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which averages to 3.4 seconds per lap.

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

In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish but found himself a disappointing 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, placing tenth.

"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 again, I nearly couldn't keep the bike upright, but we managed to secure a top ten finish and earned some points."

Espargaro acknowledged that they struggled with the tyres. He admitted that his main concern was preventing a crash rather than focusing on performance. He even found it challenging to get his knee to touch the ground.

"I wasn't able to tilt the bike during turns. It was an unusual and difficult scenario for us to deal with. We need to understand what went wrong."

The situation was even more dire for Vinales, who immediately fell to the back of the pack on Sunday's first lap. He stayed there, except for pit lane starter Luca Marini, until he withdrew from the race just before the halfway point.

The fastest lap of the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) winner was 2.7 seconds slower than the best lap set by Mar

"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 back tire," Vinales explained.

"The weekend proved challenging for both Aprilia and myself. Despite a strong showing on Friday, everything suddenly went awry."

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

"This poor showing should drive us to keep analyzing and improving as we prepare for the next races, starting with Misano."

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint, suffered a crash on the first lap of the grand prix, while his teammate Raul Fernandez ended up in 16th place due to a tyre pressure infraction.

"Today was extremely challenging," Fernandez remarked. "I'm not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with decent traction, but then my tires started to wear heavily. However, today, I couldn't get any grip at all."

"I had no traction; it felt as if I was racing on ice the entire time, which led to numerous errors."

"That race was among the toughest I've ever experienced… The silver lining is that everyone in the Aprilia team seems to be encountering the same challenges. With four riders providing feedback, we have four perspectives to help us collaborate and find a solution."

The additional positive update for Aprilia is that the upcoming home event at Misano this weekend is expected to provide significantly better traction.

Explore Further

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

Site Navigation

Crash.Net

©1999-2024 Crash Media Group

Reproducing text, photos, or illustrations, whether in full or in part, is prohibited in any manner.