Morbidelli knew Oliveira was "unbeatable" early in MotoGP Portuguese GP

Oliveira romped to a fairytale victory from pole on home soil at the Algarve International Circuit on Sunday, with his winning margin 3.1 seconds across the line having been well over four seconds at one stage.

Morbidelli sat in runner-up spot until the final lap, when Pramac's Jack Miller passed him at the Turn 13 hairpin and fended him off around the final few corners.

But third place was still good enough for the Italian to maintain his hold on second in the championship ahead of Suzuki's Alex Rins.

"I'm more happy about the second place in the championship than the place lost on the last lap," Morbidelli said.

"Jack was very good, very strong, especially at the end, he was stronger than me, he was clever.

"He was able to overtake me and he didn't give me the chance to retaliate. So huge congratulations to him and also Miguel, who was untouchable today.

"I tried it in the beginning just to see if I was able to stay close to him, but I wasn't. I realised in the beginning quite soon that I wasn't able to stay with him.

"Then I tried to just push at 200%, tried to risk a lot anyway because I wanted to make a podium finish in the last race of the championship and finally we did it."

Morbidelli's third season in the premier class yielded three grand prix victories - equal on team-mate Fabio Quartararo's haul - and a further two rostrums, as well as two pole positions.

Looking ahead to next year, Morbidelli says he now has more "self-trust" in his abilities and will have higher expectations - though "not too much".

"I will have more knowledge about myself," he added.

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"I will have more self-trust and I will have more expectations because we know what we can do and we know what we can do when things are at its place.

"For sure next year is going to be an important year for us and it's going to be an interesting year, but after all we are satellite riders, I will be a satellite rider.

"I will have expectations, but not too much because I will anyway be a satellite rider."