**”Chaos and Disappointment: Aprilia’s Nightmare at Aragon MotoGP”**

Disastrous Aprilia weekend, shameful Aragon MotoGP race

Aleix Espargaro ends up trailing Marc Marquez by a staggering 40 seconds, while Maverick Vinales withdraws midway 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 rainfall that occurred overnight on both Friday and Saturday caused them significant difficulties.

At first, the significant time gaps of 2.9 seconds for Espargaro and 3.7 seconds for Vinales behind Marquez's pole position in qualifying seemed like an unusual event.

However, this shortfall was evident in the Sprint race, with Vinales ending up in 19th place and last, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, or approximately 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro's race ended at the first turn after experiencing wheelspin on the grid's dirty side, causing him to collide with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.

In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish on Sunday, but he was a “humiliating” 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, placing tenth.

Espargaro expressed his frustration, saying, “I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to work, and we ended up more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is humiliating. Once again, I barely managed to stay on the bike, but at least we secured a top ten finish and earned some points.”

Espargaro admitted that they couldn't get the tires to function properly. He explained that he was more concerned with preventing a crash than with achieving good performance. He mentioned that it was challenging even to get his knee to touch the ground.

"I wasn't able to tilt the bike while turning. This was an unfamiliar 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 immediately fell to the last position during the first lap on Sunday. He stayed there, except for Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he withdrew from the race just before reaching the halfway mark.

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

“We struggled to make the tyres function properly. It felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly with the rear tyre,” Vinales stated.

"Aprilia and I had a tough weekend; despite a strong showing on Friday, everything fell apart afterward."

The challenge of getting the tyres to perform on a difficult track – evidenced by Marquez’s race time being 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years earlier – appeared to mirror past issues Aprilia has faced when using slick tyres in wet conditions. "A terrible weekend," said team boss Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite having very little grip, but then we lost our direction and ended up roughly four seconds slower than our best times."

"This poor showing should drive us to persist with our analysis and development efforts as we prepare 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 tyre pressure.

“Today was incredibly challenging,” Fernandez commented. “I’m quite puzzled about what occurred. The previous day, I managed three laps with decent grip and then experienced significant tire graining. However, today, I had no grip at all.”

"I had no traction; it felt like 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 all of us on the Aprilia team are encountering the same challenges. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate to find a solution."

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

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