Aprilia’s Aragon Nightmare: Espargaro and Vinales Struggle in ‘Embarrassing’ MotoGP Weekend

Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia, Disappointing Performance at Aragon MotoGP

Aleix Espargaro trails 40 seconds behind Marc Marquez, calling it a humiliating gap, 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.

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

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

The gap was evident in the Sprint race, with Vinales securing the 19th and final position, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which translates to a difference of 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro, on the other hand, failed to make it past the first turn after experiencing wheelspin due to the slippery side of the grid and then making contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.

Participating in his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish the race on Sunday, though he was a "humiliating" 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, securing tenth place.

Espargaro expressed his frustration, saying, "I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to work, and we ended up over 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating. Once again, I struggled to remain on the bike, but at least we secured a top ten finish and earned some points."

Espargaro admitted that they struggled to make the tires function properly. He explained, "My main concern was preventing crashes rather than optimizing performance. It was so challenging that I could barely get my knee to touch the ground."

"I couldn't even tilt the bike to navigate the turns. It was an unusual and challenging experience for us, and it's difficult to come to terms with. We have to understand what went wrong."

The situation was even more dire for Vinales, who fell to the last position during the first lap of Sunday’s race. He stayed there, except for passing Luca Marini, who began from the pit lane, until he retired shortly before reaching the halfway point of the race.

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

"We struggled to get the tires to perform properly. It felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly with the rear tire," Vinales mentioned.

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

Struggling to get the tyres to perform on a challenging track, Marc Marquez's race-winning time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's performance two years prior. This issue appeared to mirror past challenges Aprilia has faced when using slick tyres on wet surfaces. "It was a terrible weekend," said team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite low grip, but afterwards, we lost our direction and ended up roughly four seconds off our best pace."

"We need to use this poor showing as motivation to keep analyzing and improving as we prepare for the next races, beginning with Misano."

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint race, 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 tyre pressure.

"It was an incredibly tough day," Fernandez remarked. "I'm quite puzzled by what occurred. Just yesterday, I completed three laps with relatively decent traction, though I did experience some tyre graining afterwards. However, today, there was 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."

“It was one of the toughest races I’ve ever experienced… The silver lining is that all of us in Aprilia are encountering the same challenges. With four riders providing input, we can collaborate and determine the best path forward.”

Another positive update for Aprilia is that the upcoming Misano round this weekend, being their home track, is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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