Struggles and Setbacks: Aprilia’s Embarrassing Aragon MotoGP Weekend

Disastrous Aprilia weekend, disappointing Aragon MotoGP race

Aleix Espargaro ends the race 40 seconds behind Marc Marquez, while Maverick Vinales pulls out halfway through.

Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales concluded Friday's MotoGP practice session at Aragon with only Marc Marquez ahead of them on the leaderboard.

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

At first glance, Espargaro and Vinales being 2.9 seconds and 3.7 seconds slower than Marquez's pole position time in qualifying seemed like an anomaly.

However, this gap was evident in the Sprint race, with Vinales placing 19th and last, trailing Marquez by 37.6 seconds (an average of 3.4 seconds per lap).

Espargaro, on the other hand, failed to make it past the first turn due to experiencing wheelspin on the less clean side of the starting grid, which led to him making contact with the rear of Fabio di Giannantonio.

Participating in his final Aragon race prior to retiring, Espargaro managed to finish on Sunday but ended up a "disappointing" 40.6 seconds behind Marquez, securing the tenth position.

"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 remarked. "Once again, I nearly couldn't keep the bike under control, but at least we managed a top ten finish and earned some points."

Espargaro admitted that they couldn't get the tires to function properly. He added that he was more concerned with preventing a crash than with performance and that it was a challenge to even touch his knee to the ground.

"I couldn't tilt the bike while taking turns. It was an unusual and challenging scenario for us, which is difficult to come to terms with. We need to understand what went wrong."

Vinales faced an even tougher situation, falling immediately to the rear of the pack on the first lap of Sunday’s race. He stayed in that position, except for being ahead of Luca Marini who started from the pit lane, until he withdrew from the race shortly before reaching the halfway mark.

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

"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 stated.

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

The challenge of getting the tyres to perform on a difficult track – Marquez’s race-winning time was 12 seconds slower than Enea Bastianini's from two years prior – appeared to mirror past Aprilia struggles when using slick tyres in wet conditions. "A terrible weekend," stated team principal Massimo Rivola. "On Friday, we were quick despite having little grip, but then we lost our direction, finishing around four seconds slower than our best times."

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

Trackhouse team member Miguel Oliveira, who finished fifth in the Sprint race, had an accident on the first lap of the grand prix. Meanwhile, his teammate Raul Fernandez ended up in 16th place due to a penalty for low tire pressure.

“Today was incredibly challenging,” Fernandez stated. “I’m not quite sure what went wrong. Yesterday, I managed to complete three laps with fairly decent tire grip, but then I experienced significant tire graining. However, today, I didn’t have any grip at all.”

"I couldn’t get a good hold on the track and it felt like I was racing on ice the entire time, which caused me to make numerous errors."

"That race was among the toughest I've ever experienced. The silver lining is that all four of us Aprilia riders are encountering the same problems, so we can collectively provide feedback and collaborate to find a solution."

In other positive news for Aprilia, the upcoming home race at Misano this weekend is expected to provide significantly better traction.

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