The sixth spherical of the 2024 marketing campaign takes place this weekend on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and is predicted to be a robust looking floor for Aprilia.
That is due to Aleix Espargaro’s run to victories within the dash and the grand prix final 12 months on the venue, whereas Maverick Vinales was second within the latter to finish Aprilia’s first 1-2 in MotoGP.
Vinales says a repeat can be “a dream” this weekend, however has moved to cease expectation being mounted on Aprilia’s shoulders for previous precedent.
“I don’t know,” he stated in France when requested, after ending fifth, if Barcelona was the observe for Aprilia to return to the highest step of the rostrum.
“It is going to be a dream for positive, however we don’t know. It’s tough to say on this championship as a result of every part can change.
“The tyres are slightly bit totally different, so new expertise. We don’t know the way it works in Montmelo, so we must be sensible sufficient to not put an excessive amount of expectation on ourselves, to be sincere.
“If we have now Friday we are going to placed on expectation and we are going to go for every part. However initially, we have to see how issues go there. Might in Montmelo, [there can be] loads of rain. So, we’ll see.”
Picture by: Marc Fleury
What occurred on the 2023 Catalan GP?
The Catalan GP capped off a whirlwind few weeks for the manufacturing facility Aprilia squad, which started in August with a win for Aleix Espargaro on the British GP.
With the traits of Silverstone and Barcelona being comparable, whereas the low-grip nature of the latter lending itself to the sturdy traction of the RS-GP – in addition to Espargaro’s extra old-school using type, Aprilia was a power on the Catalan GP.
It was 1-2 with Espargaro and Vinales in each of Friday’s apply classes, whereas RNF Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira topped Saturday morning’s FP2.
Oliveira then topped Q1 on his 2022-spec RS-GP, whereas Francesco Bagnaia on the manufacturing facility Ducati lastly halted Aprilia’s stranglehold on the highest of the occasions in Q2 with pole.
However Espargaro, beginning second, overhauled him within the dash to win by 1.989s, with Vinales third. And within the grand prix, Espargaro beat Vinales by 0.377s to attain his second Sunday win of the season.
Aprilia’s successful type has light once more in 2024
The 2024 RS-GP got here into the season as a motorbike that Vinales wasn’t pleased with however Espargaro raved about over its step ahead.
However Vinales was capable of be on podium tempo in Portugal after Aprilia was capable of enhance the steadiness for him to utilise his using type correctly. A gearbox situation thwarted his hopes, however a primary victory since 2021 adopted at Austin.
Picture by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Photos
Nevertheless, since then, Aprilia’s type has dipped away. Poor qualifying outcomes for Espargaro and Vinales at Jerez made life tough, whereas the latter skilled “a put on situation” with a component on the bike he raced that meant he struggled to ninth.
At Le Mans, Vinales may do not more than fifth as team-mate Espargaro light out of the rostrum battle within the early phases to finish up ninth (although two run-ins with riders additionally hindered his progress).
As MotoGP heads to a weekend through which Aprilia is predicted to do properly, Vinales was requested in France what the marque must do to interrupt by way of the ceiling it’s seemingly caught at.
“It’s query,” he stated. “I want to do the step within the subsequent races. Clearly, we go to Montmelo and the expectations might be very excessive, however we must be conservative [and consider] that possibly the Ducati has improved lots.
“It should even be sturdy on this observe. However for the remainder of the tracks, we have to test make this subsequent step. Clearly there might be tracks that might be higher and never.
“I assumed that after I got here [to Le Mans] the weekend must be good, however the guys have been telling me possibly this was not one of the best for the bike and in the long run they have been proper.”
