KTM protege Oliveira targets MotoGP debut in 2019

Oliveira, 22, currently lies fourth in his second Moto2 campaign, riding the only non-Kalex bike in the top seven of the standings.

It was recently confirmed that the Portuguese rider will continue with KTM in Moto2 for 2018, something Oliveira says was always the plan.

However, following that year, his target is stepping up to MotoGP.

"My goal is personally as a rider is to be able to get good results in Moto2 so in 2019 I can gain attention from teams and maybe find a place in MotoGP," Oliveira told Motorsport.com.

"I had the goal to enter this project [KTM] for two years but of course I had to show already in the first season that I was able to make good results and that I could have a positive impact on the development of the bike.

"[Into the first] half of year, I already showed that I had the potential to continue so we extended the contract for another year.

Oliveira has collected five podiums in the first 10 races of the season for KTM's new Moto2 project but has yet to score a win.

Yet this doesn't bother the former Moto3 runner-up, who says "our expectation was much worse".

"It is not annoying [that we haven't won], we entered this project knowing that everything was going to be new," added Oliveira.

"Our expectation was much more worse than we are doing now so of course at the beginning of the season, we thought that maybe top 10 or top 5 would be good. Now we fight for wins so we are quite happy with the work."

"Unbelievable" MotoGP test

In addition to his Moto2 programme, Oliveira was also given the opportunity to test KTM's MotoGP bike at Aragon in June.

Oliveira admitted it was "not easy to handle" everything in the test, with regular riders Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith also present, but felt it was a "positive" experience nonetheless.

"It was unbelievable," Oliveira said of the test. "As you can imagine jumping on the F1 of bikes is a day to remember.

"For sure it came [to an end] too short, it was only a day, but it was a nice gift from the factory. Also they were interested to understand how was the feeling from a guy who has never ridden the bike before.

"I was testing with the test team, the factory riders, they were there they had to a huge plan to test things so I was kind of was there in the middle so it was not easy to handle all this at the same time."