Aprilia’s Aragon Agony: Espargaro’s Embarrassment and Vinales’ Retirement in a Challenging MotoGP Weekend

Disastrous weekend for Aprilia, humiliating performance at the Aragon MotoGP

Aleix Espargaro ends the race an 'humiliating' 40 seconds after Marc Marquez, while Maverick Vinales exits the race halfway through.

In Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon, Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales secured positions just after Marc Marquez, according to the session's timing data.

The unexpected rain during the night on both Friday and Saturday caught them off guard.

Espargaro and Vinales lagging significantly behind Marquez's leading qualifying time by 2.9 seconds and 3.7 seconds, respectively, initially seemed like an unusual anomaly.

However, the shortfall was evident in the Sprint race, with Vinales crossing the finish line 19th and in the last position, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds (equivalent to 3.4 seconds per lap).

Espargaro, on the other hand, failed to make it past the first turn, experiencing wheelspin due to the unclean part of the starting grid and subsequently making contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio's vehicle.

In his final race at Aragon before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish on Sunday, but ended up a disappointing 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, securing just the tenth position.

"Despite giving it my all, nothing seemed to click and we ended up over 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating," Espargaro remarked. "Once again, I barely managed to keep myself on the bike, yet we secured a position in the top ten, allowing us to earn some points."

"Espargaro acknowledged that they struggled to make the tires function properly. He spent more time trying to prevent a fall than concentrating on improving his speed. Even attempting to touch the ground with his knee was challenging."

"I was unable to maneuver the bike through curves. This unfamiliar scenario is challenging for us to come to terms with. We must determine the cause."

Vinales faced even greater difficulties, falling to the rear of the pack on the first lap of Sunday's race. He stayed there, ahead only of Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he withdrew shortly before the halfway point of the race.

The champion at COTA finished their fastest lap 2.7 seconds behind Marquez's time.

Vinales expressed that they faced challenges in making the tyres function properly. He felt as though he was on the verge of crashing at every curve, particularly because of issues with the rear tyre.

"The weekend was challenging for both Aprilia and myself, as the positive momentum we had on Friday simply didn't carry through afterward."

Struggling to adapt the tires to a challenging track – Marquez's victory lap was 12 seconds behind Enea Bastianini's performance from two years prior – appeared to echo past struggles of Aprilia in managing slick tires on wet surfaces. "A terrible weekend," stated team leader Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we showed speed despite the lack of grip, but afterwards, we couldn't maintain that pace, finishing roughly four seconds off our top speeds.

"The disappointing results should drive us to persist in our evaluation and improvement efforts, especially as we look ahead to the forthcoming competitions, beginning with Misano."

Trackhouse competitor Miguel Oliveira, who placed fifth in the Sprint, suffered a crash in the first lap of the grand prix, while his teammate Raul Fernandez finished 16th due to a penalty for tyre pressure.

"Today was extremely challenging," Fernandez remarked. "I'm quite puzzled by the turn of events. Just yesterday, I managed three laps where the grip was fairly decent, followed by significant graining on the tires. However, today was a complete letdown."

Throughout the entire race, my traction was non-existent; it was as though I was navigating on ice, leading to numerous errors on my part.

"This race was among the toughest I've ever experienced. The sole upside is that we're all in the same boat at Aprilia, with all four of us riders experiencing similar problems. This means we can pool our feedback, quadrupling our input, and collaborate closely to figure out a solution."

Another positive update for Aprilia is that the upcoming Misano race, which is a home event for them, is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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