KTM Moto2 rider was given the chance to ride the Austrian marque’s RC16 MotoGP challenger during a two-day private test at MotorLand Aragon.
Oliveira, who stepped up to Moto2 last season after finishing runner up in the 2015 Moto3 standings with KTM, returned to the Aki Ajo-run squad this year to spearhead the Austrian manufacturer’s debut season in Moto2.
Despite the infancy of the project, Oliveira has managed three podium finishes and a pole position from the first nine races, and currently sits third in the championship on 117 points – 77 adrift of leader Franco Morbidelli.
Under no pressure to perform on his maiden outing on a MotoGP bike, Oliveira enjoyed the experience.
“The goal was not that I was to get really fast, but it was a test for myself to enjoy the day,” he said.
“I had this opportunity that I think every rider would like to have in his career at least one time, but I’m really pleased to have had the chance to try that bike.
“So all in all it was a very good day to do a few laps and enjoy a MotoGP bike. Thank you, KTM.”
KTM technical director Sebastian Risse felt the two days of running – in which the team focused on, among many other things, the RC16’s chassis – went as well as he could have hoped, despite some iffy weather conditions.
Risse explained that the team were able to discover new set-up ideas which made a massive difference to the characteristics of the bike, though admits work is still be done on making the new solutions useable at other circuits.
“On the one hand we had new ideas, and on the other we had a very long and intense hardware programme on the chassis side of things and although the weather was not perfect, it was good enough to go through every item.
“That’s great as now we can go happy to the summer break because we’ve found some stuff that really touched the bike behaviour big time in a positive way.
“We still have to find out how to put it all together and make it work on another track, so let’s not be too optimistic, but either way it couldn’t have gone much better here so now we go home with a very good feeling.”
The 2017 season resumes on August 4-6 in the Czceh Republic, with KTM’s home round of the Austrian Grand Prix taking place a week later.
As they did at the German Grand Prix last weekend, the team will field Mika Kallio as a wildcard alongside Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith.
