Red Bull KTM’s Miguel Oliveira was firmly on pole at Portimao on Wednesday as he led a parade of hundreds of motorcycle fans.

Welcoming this weekend’s Grande Premio Tissot de Portugal, Oliveira was joined by the Mayor of Portimão Isilda Gomes and circuit CEO Paulo Pinheiro at a waterside venue to kick off proceedings in front of the local fans with an autograph session and presentation of the 27-year-old’s one-off helmet design.

The action then started from the centre of the southern Portuguese coastal resort before riding out to culminate in a lap of the rollercoaster 4.6km Algarve International Circuit. The home hero was on hand to lead the way throughout, navigating the track he claimed victory at two years ago.

“This has been amazing, a great pleasure,” Oliveira said after the event. “We always wanted to do something special here for the fans and this was very cool. If I would put myself in their position and had the chance to ride along with a MotoGP bike – which is quite a unique machine - and then onto the track then there is no way I would have missed it.

“I couldn’t believe the amount of bikes I saw. It’s a shame we couldn’t ride for longer. Having the RC16 on the road was super strange. You can definitely see that these bikes were not made to go slow! I was only just keeping the engine on.

“When we got to the track then this was more our environment. I hope we can do something like this again because every time you take one of these bikes out of context then it is beautiful. It’s been a great day and now my expectation is to have a good weekend and make a strong result.

“Being in Portugal gives me this strong boost and motivation in a way that everything that happened before doesn’t matter, it’s all about enjoying the weekend and doing the best we can.”