Pedrosa aiming to win again this year

The Spaniard's team announced last weekend that he would start using the Japanese rubber right after the San Marino Grand Prix after agreeing to part ways with Michelin.

Pedrosa lost no time in beginning his acclimatisation to the new tyres and he already tested with Bridgestone on Monday at Misano.

The Honda rider, who also tested Honda's pneumatic valve engine, set a best time of 1:34.652, the fastest of the day, less than three tenths of a second slower than his qualifying best last weekend.

Pedrosa was left encouraged by his performance and he admitted he is determined to fight for victory again this season.

"I'm happy starting this new challenge and I would like to thank Bridgestone," said Pedrosa. "Today we also made an important step forward in developing the 2009 bike, but now my first priority is to be fully competitive again.

"Of course, there is a lot of work to do but I am determined to win again this year. Today we worked hard on bike set-up. The feeling with the new tyres on my RC212V is different, both for settings and for riding style, but I just tried to follow my feelings and adjust the set-up accordingly.

"Today was only the first day of this new challenge but I am happy.

"I also tested the pneumatic-valve engine. The engine character is different, the power delivery is a bit more aggressive, but the engine has some good points.

"I have no experience on this latest bike, so I had to test many new things today. This has been an important test. Now we will analyse all the data and we look forward to the next race at Indianapolis."

Pedrosa set his best time with the pneumatic valve engine and finished nearly a second ahead of Shinya Nakano.