**”Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro’s ‘Embarrassing’ Finish and Vinales’ Mid-Race Woes Highlight Dire MotoGP Weekend”**

Disastrous weekend for Aprilia, humiliating MotoGP race in Aragon

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

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

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

It initially seemed unusual that Espargaro was 2.9 seconds and Vinales was 3.7 seconds slower than Marquez's pole position time in qualifying.

However, this gap was evident during the Sprint race, as Vinales ended up in 19th place, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which amounts to an average of 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro's race ended early at Turn 1 after experiencing wheelspin on the grid's dirty side and then making contact with Fabio di Giannantonio from behind.

In his final Aragon race prior to retiring, Espargaro managed to finish on Sunday, though he ended up in tenth place, trailing Marquez by a substantial 40.6 seconds, which he described as "embarrassing."

"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," Espargaro stated. "Once again, I nearly struggled to keep control of the bike, but at least we finished in the top ten and earned some points."

Espargaro admitted that they couldn't get the tires to function properly. He explained that his main concern was preventing a crash rather than focusing on performance. He also mentioned that even getting his knee to touch the ground was a challenge.

"I wasn't able to tilt the bike while making turns. This was an unusual and unfamiliar experience for us, making it difficult to come to terms with. We need to understand what went wrong."

Conditions deteriorated further for Vinales, who fell to last place during the first lap on Sunday. He stayed there, with the exception of Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he withdrew from the race shortly before the halfway point.

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

"We struggled with making the tyres function properly. It felt like I was on the brink of crashing at every corner, particularly because of the rear tyre," Vinales remarked.

"Aprilia and I had a tough weekend; things fell apart after Friday's strong performance."

The team's struggle to manage the tyres on a challenging track – evident as Marquez's winning time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years prior – seemed to echo past issues Aprilia faced when using slick tyres in wet conditions. "It was a terrible weekend," said team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite low grip, but then we lost our direction, ending up roughly four seconds slower than our peak performance."

"This poor showing should inspire us to keep analyzing and developing as we prepare for the upcoming races, beginning with Misano."

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint, was involved in a crash during the first lap of the grand prix. Meanwhile, his teammate Raul Fernandez ended up in 16th place after receiving a penalty for tyre pressure.

"Today was incredibly challenging," Fernandez remarked. "I can't quite grasp what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with reasonably decent traction before experiencing significant tyre graining. However, today, there was no grip at all."

"I struggled with traction throughout the race, feeling as though I was constantly sliding on ice, which led to numerous errors."

“That race was among the toughest I’ve ever experienced… The silver lining is that all of us in Aprilia are dealing with similar challenges. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate effectively to find a solution.”

In other positive news for Aprilia, the Misano round this weekend, being their home event, is expected to provide significantly better traction.

Explore Further

Recent Updates

Recent Updates

Site Map

Crash.Net

©1999-2024 Crash Media Group

Reproducing any part of the text, images, or drawings in whole or in part is prohibited in any manner.