The difficult 2022 MotoGP run-in of the season’s success story Aprilia culminated in outright disaster in the final grand prix at Valencia, as it dropped a position in each of the three championship classifications.
“It’s a shame for us,” said rider Maverick Vinales. “We could’ve been third on the [riders’] champion [with Aleix Espargaro]second as a team.
“Ending like this is not good. We need to improve. Of course I’m really upset.”
Aprilia headed into the Valencia weekend with lead rider Espargaro, a title contender for much of the season, just hanging on to third place in the standings by one point over Gresini Ducati rider Enea Bastianini.
Espargaro had qualified three places ahead of Bastianini, but sank like a stone off the line. Though he managed to keep himself in the fight on the opening lap, even repassing Bastianini, he soon had to accept defeat as he came into the pits.
“Engine problem,” Espargaro said afterwards. “I don’t know exactly [what] yet. I don’t even want to know.
“But from the start, already at the start the bike stopped, and then for three laps on every acceleration the bike was stopping. I was forced to stop in the garage.”
Asked whether it was a familiar issue, he said: “I don’t know. I don’t really care about what happened to the engine. The engine stopped, it’s not the first time.
“Today was the worst day for this to happen, because I think I had more speed than Enea to fight for third place in the championship, which was a dream for me.
“At the end, which piece of the engine it was, I don’t care.”
Aprilia identified the Espargaro issue as likely being fuel-system related. Bastianini, knowing any points score would do, was aware it “wasn’t necessary to push 100%” and brought the bike home in eighth to easily claim third place in the standings.
While Espargaro’s retirement dashed his hopes in the riders’ category, Vinales’ exit ensured Aprilia would feel the pain in both the teams’ and constructors’ championships, too.
He was eighth after the start and 10th after an untidy conclusion to the opening lap, but this may have already been his RS-GP’s technical strife manifesting itself – as what followed was a run of hugely oscillating laptimes before he came in to retire on lap 15
Aprilia described the issue as having to do with the front of the bike, while Vinales’ description was a bit more explicit.
“In the last five rounds we’ve had many technical problems with the bike,” he said. “It’s something we must pay a lot of attention to.
“I had a problem with the brakes. I braked 50 meters early and I was going out of the track.
“It’s a shame. Because I think we had the rhythm, we had the pace, to fight for the first places.
“I don’t know how to face it, honestly. We worked well all weekend, I was really motivated…we must improve.”
Before the lights went out, Aprilia retained a five-point buffer for second place over Yamaha in the constructors’ standings, and had 28 points in hand over the factory KTM outfit in the teams’ championship.
It non-scored in both categories, so not only did Fabio Quartararo’s fourth place for Yamaha leave Aprilia as the third-best constructor, but KTM getting a second-place finish from Brad Binder and fifth place for Miguel Oliveira was enough for it to clear Aprilia in the teams’ standings by three points.
“We are angry and disappointed,” said Aprilia racing boss Massimo Rivola.
“Evaluating our season, we should look at the glass as half full, but it’s hard for me to do that.
“We had goals that were within our potential and deserved, such as third place for Aleix and second in the constructors’ and teams’ standings. Extraordinary results that would have been the just rewards for the hard work done by all of Aprilia Racing.
“But evidently we are still not accustomed to battling consistently for the highest objectives.”