Disastrous Weekend for Aprilia: Espargaro and Vinales Struggle in Embarrassing Aragon MotoGP Race

Terrible weekend for Aprilia, with a humiliating performance at the Aragon MotoGP

Aleix Espargaro trails 40 seconds behind Marc Marquez, while Maverick Vinales withdraws halfway through the race.

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

Nonetheless, the muddy rain that fell on both Friday and Saturday nights caused them to struggle.

Espargaro and Vinales were initially thought to have had a rare off day in qualifying, finishing a massive 2.9 seconds and 3.7 seconds behind Marquez’s pole time, respectively.

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

Espargaro, on the other hand, couldn't make it past the first turn. He experienced wheelspin due to starting on the less clean side of the grid and then made 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 more than 40 seconds behind the winner, which is quite humiliating," Espargaro stated. "Once again, I struggled to keep control of the bike, but at least we managed a top ten finish, so we earned some points."

Espargaro admitted, "We couldn't get the tires to function properly. My main concern was preventing a crash rather than focusing on performance. It was so challenging that I struggled to even get my knee to touch the ground."

“I was unable to tilt the bike while turning. It was an unusual and unfamiliar scenario for us, which is 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 rear of the pack on the first lap of Sunday's race. He stayed at the back, only ahead of pit lane starter Luca Marini, 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 best time.

"We struggled with the tyres, and it felt like I was on the verge of crashing at every corner, particularly with the rear tyre," Vinales remarked.

"It was a challenging weekend for both Aprilia and myself. Following a strong showing on Friday, nothing seemed to go right afterward."

Struggling to get the tyres to perform on a challenging track – with Marquez’s race time being 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years earlier – appeared to echo Aprilia's past issues with slick tyres in wet conditions. "A terrible weekend," stated team boss Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite having little grip, but then we lost our direction, finishing around four seconds off our best times."

"This poor showing should inspire us to keep analyzing and improving as we prepare for the upcoming races, beginning with Misano."

Trackhouse racer Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint, was involved in an accident during the first lap of the grand prix, while his team-mate Raul Fernandez placed 16th due to a tyre pressure penalty.

“Today was extremely challenging,” Fernandez commented. “I’m not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed three laps with fairly decent tire grip before experiencing significant graining. However, today, I didn’t have any grip at all.”

"I struggled to find traction; it felt as if I was racing on ice the entire time, leading 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 problems. With four riders providing input, we can collaborate and find a solution together."

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

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