Disastrous Aragon MotoGP: Aprilia’s ‘Horrible’ Weekend Marred by Embarrassing Performances

Disastrous weekend for Aprilia at Aragon MotoGP

Aleix Espargaro trails Marc Marquez by 40 seconds in a race he calls ‘embarrassing,’ while Maverick Vinales withdraws halfway through.

Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales concluded Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon with times that were second only to Marc Marquez.

Nonetheless, the rainfall that occurred overnight on both Friday and Saturday left them struggling.

Initially, the fact that Espargaro was 2.9 seconds and Vinales was 3.7 seconds slower than Marquez's pole position time in qualifying seemed like an anomaly.

The gap was evident during the Sprint race, with Vinales ending up in 19th place, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which breaks down to 3.4 seconds per lap.

Espargaro, on the other hand, was unable to make it past the first turn. He experienced wheelspin due to starting on the dirty part of the grid and ended up hitting the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio's bike.

In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish but was a disappointing 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, ending up in tenth position.

“I put in my best effort, but nothing seemed to work, and we ended up more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating,” Espargaro commented. “Once again, I struggled to stay on the bike, but at least we managed to secure a top ten finish and earn some points.”

"We couldn't get the tires to function properly," Espargaro stated. "I concentrated more on preventing a crash than on achieving high performance. It was tough to even get my knee to touch the ground."

"I couldn't even tilt the bike while turning. This was an unusual and unfamiliar experience for us, and it's difficult to come to terms with. We need to understand what went wrong."

Vinales faced even more difficulties, falling to the very last position right from the first lap on Sunday. He stayed there, except for Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he withdrew shortly before the race reached its halfway point.

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

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

"It was a challenging weekend for both Aprilia and myself. Despite a strong showing on Friday, everything fell apart afterwards."

The struggle to get the tires to perform on a challenging track – with Marquez's race-winning time being 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years prior – appeared to echo earlier issues Aprilia had with handling slick tires in wet conditions. "A terrible weekend," stated team boss Massimo Rivola. "We were quick on Friday despite having little grip, but then we lost our direction and ended up around four seconds off our best times."

“This poor showing should inspire us to keep working on our analysis and development as we look ahead to the upcoming races, beginning with Misano.”

Miguel Oliveira from Trackhouse, who finished fifth in the Sprint, unfortunately crashed 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 extremely challenging," Fernandez remarked. "I'm not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with relatively decent tire grip before experiencing significant graining. However, today, I didn't get any grip at all."

"I couldn't get any traction; it felt like I was racing on ice the whole time, which led to numerous errors."

"That race was among the toughest I've ever experienced… On the bright side, it seems like all of us at Aprilia are dealing with the same challenges. With four riders providing feedback, we can collaborate to find a solution."

Another positive development for Aprilia is that the upcoming home race at Misano this weekend is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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