Pedrosa blames injuries for slump

The Spaniard led the championship early on, but ultimately ended the year a distant third in the standings - 124 points adrift of champion Valentino Rossi - having won just twice.

He reckons he lost competitiveness primarily due to the hand injuries he suffered in pre-season testing at Sepang in January and in an accident when leading the sodden German Grand Prix in July.

"I broke my right hand at the beginning, then the left in the middle of the season, then hurt my knee in Australia, so I lost the rhythm many times this season - in the beginning and middle especially - because I was injured," said Pedrosa.

"I stopped my work on the bike and everybody else continued to get better and better every race."

The Repsol Honda rider is aiming to have a smoother season in 2009.

"I had to push very hard to come back strongly, and I hope next year we can stay away from those things," said Pedrosa.

"We hope things go well this time, we have no injuries pre-season, and we can work all the way to the first race."

Pedrosa ended the year with second places at Sepang and Valencia, results that he believes vindicated his decision to switch from Michelin to Bridgestone tyres prior to the Indianapolis race.

"We've come back from a bad period in the middle of the season," he said.

"We changed the tyres and I had many critics. But finally in the last three races we've come back on the pace. At Phillip Island I crashed because of cold tyres, but at the last two races we were at the top from practice."