Despite the absence of its star signing, Aprilia was the only reason in the 2025 MotoGP season opener to believe Ducati's premier-class dominance will be curbed at least somewhat this year.
The Ducatis may have 'stood still' spec-wise, but were still enough to beat each of its rivals bar Aprilia by double-digit seconds in both races.
It reflected a weekend - and a pre-season before it - in which no manufacturer's riders were as consistently and uniformly positive about their respective off-season step forward as Aprilia's.
And test rider Lorenzo Savadori, a key figure in the bike's development, was particularly beaming all weekend as he rode in relief of the injured Jorge Martin.
On Friday he described himself as "happy and proud" over three Aprilias making Q2 directly. He "rode a bit" with team-mate Marco Bezzecchi, and said Bezzecchi "looks very comfortable on the bike, super smooth, it's very nice to see on track".
"We watched a lot of data of Marco - in a small period, he's taken a lot of confidence with the bike. I think it's more easy than in the past now."
Trackhouse's star rookie Ai Ogura stole the Aprilia headlines from that point onwards, his phenomenal adaptation to the RS-GP - and ability to ride both smoothly and aggressively when required - also taken as evidence the bike is more compliant than ever.
"I want to take it also a sign that... the bike is not so bad!" Trackhouse team principal Davide Brivio told The Race after praising his rider.
All this at a Buriram track that, as Savadori put it, is "not super friendly" to the Aprilia historically.
A word of caution
It is easy to maybe overstate a little just how 'unfriendly' the stop-and-go Buriram layout has been to the Aprilia - you would struggle to truly argue it rose to the definition of a bogey track, given Aleix Espargaro in particular was genuinely in the mix in 2023.
Aprilia in Thailand since 2022
Best gap to race winner
Aleix Espargaro, 4.303s (0.165s per lap) in 2023 GP*
Aleix Espargaro, 3.581s (0.275s per lap) in 2023 sprint
Ai Ogura, 7.450s (0.287s per lap) in 2025 GP
Maverick Vinales, 8.498s (0.327s per lap) in 2024 GP
Ai Ogura, 4.392s (0.338s per lap) in 2025 sprint
* excluding three-second penalty for tyre pressure breach
Best gap to pole in Q2
Aleix Espargaro, 0.174s in 2023
Ai Ogura, 0.352s in 2025
Maverick Vinales, 0.414s in 2023
Raul Fernandez, 0.585s in 2025
Marco Bezzecchi, 0.599s in 2025
And there's also the consideration that all of those previous Thai rounds were late season, when the Aprilia has tended to struggle more.
What's better
But for now at least the RS-GP's step forward is the clearest on the grid, in what seems like every area. Savadori described the 2025 bike as largely an evolution but was fairly bullish about it being 'evolved' in every aspect - which seems to have translated.
Aprilia was fortunate to arrive into the pre-season in good shape on the engine side in particular - no hard homologation decisions needed to be made over the 2025 unit.
If it had faced the kind of headache that, say, Ducati faced over engine specs, with the two-year engine freeze a complicating factor, Martin's pre-season absence would've been even more galling.
But the choice wasn't difficult at all. "No-no-no, absolutely [not]," emphasised Aprilia motorsport boss Massimo Rivola.
"We knew that the '25 engine was clearly better than the '24 - in terms of power delivery, torque, etc. Luckily the riders said that that engine was better also in management... we are quite confident on that."
Raul Fernandez - the only rider in the Aprilia camp who can really compare the '24 and '25 offerings apart from Savadori - said the bike had retained a similar character but was less physical and promised more potential.
He was also convinced that it improved in starts and that it was no longer as vulnerable to heat while running in the pack. Savadori, too, said the issue is "more or less solved".
This was corroborated by Bezzecchi's feedback, in a fairly emphatic fashion.
"Really really good, to be honest. It was hot, of course - it would be bulls**t if I said no. [But] I think nothing crazy compared to other bikes.
"I expected, hearing the comments from Maverick and Aleix from the past years, much, much worse. Either I'm very fit or the bike is really fresh. It's one of the two - and I think more the second."
There's still work to do, of course, with some hints during the weekend that the bike might still be quite prone to spiking the front tyre temperature.
But Buriram is no Silverstone, nor Assen, nor even the upcoming round at Termas de Rio Hondo. These are the more favourable Aprilia tracks, and unless the bike's profile has flipped completely it should be in a good position to really compete sooner or later.
Ducati will almost certainly win the championship. But Aprilia has at least seemingly won the off-season.
