Aprilia received a lot of buzz coming out of Phillip Island as perhaps now the best bike in MotoGP - which was followed up by it being last in Friday practice the following weekend at Sepang.
The upgraded RS-GP, with its improvemence to braking stability and continued prowess in high-speed corners, has emerged as Ducati's most potent week-to-week challenger in years in the hands of Marco Bezzecchi in particular.
With a 'floor' of performance that seems better than ever, it was faster than expected at theoretically unfavourable stop-and-go tracks like the Red Bull Ring and Motegi, and absolutely flew the last two weekends at Mandalika and Phillip Island.
But Sepang, where the Aprilia had never impressed in recent years, has proven a climbdown so far, with all four RS-GPs absent from the top 10 on Friday - after Bezzecchi topped three consecutive Fridays prior to today.
Five Ducatis, three Hondas, three Yamahas and two KTMs (one belonging to a tester) slotted in ahead of the lead Aprilia on the first day at Sepang. In fact, the order of manufacturers - taking the fastest rider from each - is completely inverted compared to Friday at Phillip Island.
Friday at Phillip Island
Aprilia (Marco Bezzecchi)
Ducati (Fabio Di Giannantonio) +0.420s
Yamaha (Fabio Quartararo) +0.434s
Honda (Luca Marini) +0.559s
KTM (Pol Espargaro) +0.562s
Friday at Sepang
KTM (Pedro Acosta)
Honda (Johann Zarco) +0.019s
Yamaha (Jack Miller) +0.281s
Ducati (Fabio Di Giannantonio) +0.480s
Aprilia (Ai Ogura) +0.741s
Tester Lorenzo Savadori is convinced there is no real cause for concern, given he'd found track conditions so unusual from the outset - and rain during the day prevented the surface from ramping up the way it usually would.
"The weather was quite strange and also the grip level of the track was quite strange," he insisted. "We don't alarm, but we need to improve for tomorrow. But honestly, these type of conditions I have never found here, because in the morning the grip level was quite low, after the session it improved but it rained, and then it rained again for the last minutes [of second practice].
"Honestly I think all the Aprilias can do a step tomorrow."
Ai Ogura, who said he "struggled to get good acceleration in most of the corners", seemed to concur. "I think today the grip levels as extremely low, especially the edge of the tyre - I think all of the Aprilia guys struggled in that bit."
But the others are reporting some more fundamental limitations.
Australian Grand Prix winner Raul Fernandez described it as "almost the same problem as last year", when Aprilia slogged it through a generally hopeless Sepang weekend.
He did not mean the bike struggling with the heat, which was a major talking point last year but is seemingly fixed now, but rather a lack of performance from the rear and significant tyre wear.
Bezzecchi too said "the drop was quite big".
He said the main problem was "a little bit the control of gas - on gas, on traction especially, I struggled to find the best way to put all the power on the ground. Then all the rest is a bit a consequence from this".
"At the moment, I'm not really fast, this is what I know," he said.
Asked what the potential was, Bezzecchi chuckled: "I don't know. I have no idea. Hopefully much more than this."
