- Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) is on pole for the eighth time in 2017. He is aiming to become the youngest ever rider to win four premier-class world titles.
- In second place on the grid is Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), which is his fourth successive front row start. He is aiming to be the first satellite team rider to win in his rookie season in the premier-class since Valentino Rossi in 2000.
- Andrea Iannone (Team SUZUKI ECSTAR) is back on the front row for the first time since the opening race of the year in Qatar. Iannone finished third last year in Valencia when riding for Ducati, which is the Italian manufacturer’s only podium at this circuit in the last six years.
- The MotoGP race in Valencia has only once been won by a rider who has not qualified on the front row, which was when Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) won from fifth place on the grid in 2014.
- Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati Team) heads the second row on a Ducati, making it four different manufacturers filling the top four places on the grid. Lorenzo has won in Valencia three times in the last four years.
- Triple Valencia MotoGP winner Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) has qualified in fifth place on the grid. Pedrosa is scheduled to make his 277th GP start, which moves him into a clear fourth place above Alex Barros is the all-time Grand Prix start list.
- In sixth place on the grid is wild card rider Michele Pirro (Ducati Team), who took his only Grand Prix victory in the Moto2 class in Valencia in 2011.
- Heading the third row is Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), who has competed in all eighteen Grand Prix events that have taken place at the Valencia circuit.
- Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini), who has qualified in eighth position, made his Grand Prix debut in the 125cc class at the Valencia circuit in 2004 at the age of fifteen.
- Championship challenger Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) starts from ninth place on the grid, which is the same qualifying position from which he won the Japanese Grand Prix four weeks ago.
- Danilo Petrucci (OCTO Pramac Racing), who has qualified in 15th position, is scheduled to make his 100th Grand Prix start, all of which have been in the MotoGP class.