Aleix Espargaro says the de🎐ficit Aprilia has against Ducati over the course of a grand prix distance in MotoGP is “shocking” in 2024.

After a strong start to the c♛urrent campaign, with Maverick Vinales winning the Americas Grand Prix, Aprilia has found itself struggling for strong r💛esults in Sunday races.

The RS-GP remains quick in qualifying trim and is a regular🍸 to the podium in sprint races still - with Espargaro third in the previous two Saturday contests.

But over the course of a grand prix, the Aprilia strugꦅgles to preserve its rear tyre relative to the Ducati and has found itself tumbling backwards in Sunday ra🧸ces.

In Austria, top Aprilia was 21.206s🉐 off the race leader, while in Britain it was 9.514s adrift.

This weekend’s Aragon GP represents a good opportunity for Aprilia to fight for the podium, h🅠aving been strong at the circuit even during its uncompetitive years with the RS-GP.

On MotoGP’s last visit to Aragon, Espargaro was third behind Frances🦄co Bagnaia and race winner Enea Bastianini.

However, while he sees potential for a good result, he noted that Aprilia’s༺ strong poi🌌nt in the 2022 Aragon GP is the area it is now struggling the most with.

“I w⭕ould love to be positive, but I don’t have really a lot of arguments,” he said when asked on Thursday at Araꦗgon if Aprilia can have a good weekend.

“We are working hard. The last time we raced here our strongest point🎃 was the second part of the race, but this year we still are not able to understand why - we are working in it - in the second part of the race we destroy the tyre more.

“Ducati, it’s unbelievable how fast they can be in 🎃the second part of the race and we cannot.

“So, we are fast in the qualifying, 🐷fast in the sprint, but unfortunately we are missing the last laps of the 🗹Sunday race. So, hopefully we can understand something this weekend.”

Espargaro added: “Hopefully als♒o 🌱Sunday [we can fight for a podium].

“I will try my best. The last two sprints we were fighting an꧒d finished on the podiu💫m.

“Hopefully here we can do the same. We know we can be fast on ♕the soft tyre, but for me and the team it’s really important to understand what we are missing for the Sunday.

“It’s really shocking to arrive on Sunday with similar pace to the top ♑guys and then finish 10 seconds [behind] in the en🐼d of the race.

“We have to work hard, we have to understand why. But yes, this is a good opportunity. This is a good trac🐬k for Aprilia and for myself.”