Disastrous Aragon Weekend: Aprilia Struggles with Tyre Issues, Espargaro and Vinales Flounder Behind Marquez

Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia, Shameful Performance at Aragon MotoGP

Aleix Espargaro ends the race 40 seconds after Marc Marquez, and Maverick Vinales withdraws halfway through.

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

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

Initially, Espargaro being 2.9 seconds and Vinales being 3.7 seconds slower than Marquez's pole position time in qualifying seemed like an unusual event.

The gap was evident during the Sprint race, as Vinales ended up in 19th place, the last position, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds, which averages to a 3.4-second lag per lap.

Espargaro, on the other hand, was unable to make it past the first turn after experiencing wheelspin on the grid's less favorable side and then making contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio's bike.

In his final Aragon race before retiring, Espargaro managed to finish but ended up an "embarrassing" 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, securing tenth place.

"I gave it my all, but nothing seemed to work, and we ended up over 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating," Espargaro commented. "Once more, I struggled to remain on the bike, but we managed a top ten finish and earned some points."

Espargaro admitted that they struggled to get the tires to function properly. He explained that his primary concern was preventing a crash rather than optimizing performance. He added that it was challenging to even touch his knee to the ground.

“I wasn't able to lean into the corners with the motorcycle. 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.”

The situation was even more dire for Vinales, who fell to the rear of the pack right from the start of Sunday's race. He stayed there, with the exception of Luca Marini who began from the pit lane, until he withdrew from the race just before reaching the halfway point.

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

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

"It was a tough weekend for both Aprilia and myself. After a strong showing on Friday, everything suddenly fell apart."

Struggling with the tires on a challenging track—Marc Marquez’s victory time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years prior—seemed to mirror past issues Aprilia faced when using slick tires on wet surfaces. "A terrible weekend," said team leader Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite limited grip, but we then lost our direction and ended up around four seconds slower than our top times."

"This poor performance should inspire us to persist with our analysis and development efforts as we look ahead to the upcoming races, beginning with Misano."

Miguel Oliveira from Trackhouse, 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 extremely challenging,” Fernandez remarked. “I can’t quite grasp what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with reasonably good traction before experiencing significant tire graining. However, today, I had 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."

"It was among the toughest races I've ever experienced… The silver lining is that everyone in the Aprilia team is encountering the same challenges. With four riders contributing their insights, we can collaborate effectively to determine the right path forward."

Another positive aspect for Aprilia is that the upcoming Misano round this weekend, which is on their home turf, is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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