While all the attention at the final round of the 2022 MotoGP season might so far be upon championship leader Pecco Bagnaia and his theoretical (if practically unlikely) challenger Fabio Quartararo, there’s another title on the line that promises to be won in far more spectacular fashion.
The 2022 Moto2 crown has so far this year seemed like the prize that no one wants to win, such has been the manner in which title contenders have thrown away their chances.
The 23-point MotoGP gap between Bagnaia and Quartararo requires not just an exceptional race from the Yamaha rider (better than any of late from him) and a lot of bad luck for his Ducati rival, while the gap between 2023 MotoGP graduate Augusto Fernandez and Japanese rival Ai Ogura is a mere 9.5 points.
The process of whittling down the title contenders to a mere two has been an arduous one, with early stars fading and late bloomers leaving it just a little too late to achieve what they’re after.
For example, early in the year, it looked like VR46 rider Celestino Vietti would be absolutely unstoppable in the series, racking up two wins and two second places in the first five races – before something clearly changed in the Italian’s performance and his season turned into a crash-strewn disaster.
Falling in five of the past seven races, any championship ambitions he had are long gone.
Aron Canet likewise tailed off despite having been Vietti’s closest challenger initially. Still yet to win in Moto2 despite a tally of 13 podiums and 33 laps led, a crash that wasn’t his fault in Portugal combined with a concussion suffered in a car crash meant Canet never got the chance to stitch together a consistent run of championship-calibre points-scoring.
On paper, it might be advantage Fernandez going into Sunday’s race, but the absolutely wild nature of this year’s Moto2 championship – a season of rash decisions, foolish mistakes, bad luck and thrown-away chances – means that there is still very much everything on the table with 25 points remaining to be scored.
Starting the year slowly, Fernandez wasn’t an obvious title contender until he first won in France at the fifth round. Building up impressive momentum from then, the Spaniard went on to take four wins and eight podium finishes from 10 races – but since then has faltered somewhat, just as the season is coming to a crunch.
Off the podium for the past three rounds, he nearly dealt his title aspirations a killer blow by crashing out in Australia while trying to keep up with Ajo team-mate Pedro Acosta, conceding very valuable points in the process.
“I want to keep it simple as much as possible,” he insisted ahead of the weekend’s action kicking off. “I want to forget about the main thing, which is to win the title.
“I want to do a normal weekend, which is to build up confidence with the bike, with the track, with the set-up, with everything from Friday, and then of course, let’s see. But, I want to fight for the win on Sunday; this is the main thing.”
Despite his mistake in Australia, the reason that things still stack up in Fernandez’s favour is very simple: because of an even more unnecessary mistake made last time out at Sepang by then points leader Ogura.
On a weekend where Fernandez was struggling somewhat (and getting beaten up further down the order in the process), all Ogura had to do was bring it home safely on the podium – but instead a rash attempt to take the race win from Tony Arbolino left him sitting in the gravel, conceding his points lead and handing the advantage back to Fernandez.
“I was surprised, honestly,” Fernandez admitted of seeing his rival in the gravel, “because I had a lot of frustration with my race, I had some problems with the rear tyre and I couldn’t fight with him for anything at the end, and it was a very hard race, a very tough one.
“Seeing him on the floor was a big surprise for me but in Australia I made a mistake, in Malaysia he did, and now we focus on Valencia.”
There should be an additional confidence in the Spaniard as he heads to one of his home tracks, too, with Ogura admitting in turn that Valencia isn’t a track where he normally performs well – even if the past weeks have shown us that anything can happen.
“I have already thought enough about the Malaysian GP so I do not have many things to talk about,” he said sitting alongside Fernandez at the pre-event press conference. “But, I was feeling good on the bike, I tried my maximum, but in the end I made a mistake. But for me, I was quite happy with our race weekend, so I don’t take negative things.
“I mean, the crash was bad, but generally I was feeling good on the bike, this was the main thing, and this is the most important thing as a rider, so I’m really looking forward to starting this weekend.
“Usually before the Valencia GP, I am quite nervous because I’m not really good at this track, but this time – I don’t know why – I feel quite good and relaxed, so I hope I can do well on the bike.”
In keeping with their respective feelings towards Valencia, Fernandez set the pace the in the opening practice session, with Ogura 1.1s off the pace in seventh.
But it’s just not been the kind of title race where you can read much into a rider’s performance pattern – or, more importantly, one where you can count on either of them making the chequered flag.
