The Moto2 title will also be decided this Sunday (12:20 p.m., DAZN) at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, much tighter than the MotoGP title.
Majorcan Augusto Fernández will start from third position with a 9.5-point lead over Ai Ogura, who will start fifth after showing less pace in practice.
“I've seen more of him these days than in the whole season”, joked the KTM rider and next member of the MotoGP grid with GASGAS, who shared baskets at L'Alqueria del Basket with the Japanese.
No team orders or anything special, he intends to go all out and win the race.
"I plan to do my career and we'll see where he is," said the Spaniard.
He needs to get on the podium if he doesn't want to get out the calculator, and his 17th front row out of a possible 20 puts him in an unbeatable position.
If he does not succeed, a second place for Ogura would force him to be fourth or fifth, while if his rival is third he could drop to ninth place.
A fall, of course, would give the Japanese many more possibilities, for which it would be enough to be seventh.
In recent races, both have made big mistakes and therefore a good battle is expected in Valencia.
"It's crazy, everything has happened.
For a moment it seemed that we had lost it and the next it was the other way around and everything smiled at us again ”, recalled Fernández, who crashed in Australia and handed over the lead to his rival two races from the end.
The one from Honda, who lives in Barcelona with his three classmates from the Idemitsu academy, was short-lived in joy.
A week later he lost half a title for being too ambitious and falling when he was fighting for victory in the Malaysian GP with Tony Arbolino.
"Usually I'm nervous before this Grand Prix because I'm not good at it, but I don't know why, this time I'm relaxed," explained the Saitama driver.
At 21 years old, despite having the proposal on the table, he chose not to go up to MotoGP yet in the midst of fighting for the Moto2 World Championship.
Shy and reserved, he is aiming for the first title for the Asian country since 2009, when his team leader, Hiroshi Aoyama, also triumphed in the intermediate category.
If Fernández confirms the alirón, Balearic motorcycling would close a dream course after celebrating Izan Guevara's title in Moto3 in the previous test.
For his family, the Valencia race is a gift and a moment of enjoyment thanks to the tranquility of having the future tied.
“Getting here is the dream of a lifetime.
The issue of having or not having a seat for next year is more fucked up, ”explained Augusto Jr. to justify his calm posing this weekend.
At home, he recognized, he was eating his head more than usual: "I wanted to be here already."
Ahead of him, poleman Alonso López and Pedro Acosta will battle for the rookie of the year title.
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