Oliviera moves to Moto2 with Leopard for 2016

Miguel Oliviera has signed to race for Leopard Racing in next year’s Moto2 championship. The Portuguese rider, who claimed his first Grand Prix win at Mugello this year, will join Leopard for their first season returning to Moto2. The team won the Moto2 title with Stefan Bradl in 2011 and will race with Kalex chassis next year.

“Honestly speaking I’m playing around with this idea since the beginning of this year,” said Oliviera. “Of course it will be a big step for me, but I feel I’m ready to do it. Moto2 is a very difficult category so I’ll need a lot of training to start this new chapter in my career well prepared because we’ve seen many riders to enter this class but struggling to adapt to it quickly.

“Anyway, I’m convinced that I’m doing it with the right team, I trust in the guys around me as well as in the whole project. I think we’re going be successful. From my side I only can say that I’ll put my 200 percent in this stage of my career and I’ll try and do my best from the very first beginning. I’m really happy to reach this agreement with such a successful team and with an experienced crew.”

The team has been dominating the Moto3 championship with Danny Kent and the Englishman could also make the move to the intermediate class. The Englishman however has MotoGP options on his table having been in discussions with Aspar.