"Pedrosa fast on Bridgestone tyres"

Dani Pedrosa of Repsol Honda makes debut Bridgestone and provides fast lap time with pneumatic valve engine during testing at Misano.

Less than a day after his shock division of Michelin, Dani Pedrosa of Repsol Honda made its debut during Bridgestone Monday after the race Misano test - and establish a head turning back time when combining his new Honda with rubber pneumatic valve engine.

The Spanish began the test at 13:30 and completed a total of 81 circulations, divided into short runs of 6-8 laps. The original plan was finished at 18:00, but the team management requested the circuit for another 15 minutes to complete the full schedule of tests. Conditions are once again hot and sunny with ambient temperature to 34 degrees and track temperature at 42 degrees.

Pedrosa of the first task was to adapt the set-up of his family spring-valve VN - with which he finished a distant fourth on Sunday in San Marino Grand Prix - to adapt to their new tyres, while learning new characteristics of grip.

Despite warnings that it could take months to adapt to new rubber, Pedrosa set a best lap time of 1min 35.555secs in the valve spring bike - close to the 1min 35.479secs had registered during the race, when using Michelin rubber.

"Fortunately today was sunny and we were able to mount as we liked, with a slow start, and then the creation, and that is important," explained Dani. "We try to find a set up that we liked, as the tyres are very different and handling of the bike has changed dramatically, it feels like another bike.

"At this moment it is difficult to say what he liked most about the new tyres, as I still do not have much experience with them and we have not tried a lot of compounds. I just tried to get used to them, find their limits and get to know them and their response.

"I tried to find out if they are good when it starts, or if you have to warm up more or less time. At first the first thing that is the goal of security, feel comfortable and to find out how stability is on the bike.

"Since then the most important thing for me is to begin to discover where your limits and know how to react in some moments," he said.

Despite their limited knowledge of the new rubber, Pedrosa and cree that can claim a victory Bridgestone debut during the remaining five rounds of the 2008 season.

"Of course, there is much work to do but I am determined to win again this year," he said.

Any victory might even come with the Honda pneumatic-valve engine, as Pedrosa fastest laps of the day came after 17.00, when combined with their new tires' air 'for the first time.

The delay in the pneumatic valve design has been developed for the race-team-mate Nicky Hayden from Donington Park, but Pedrosa - a dual career, 2008 winner and former championship contender - has been waiting for the performance and reliability to be improved before making the jump.



That time could be fast approaching after the Spanish clocked a 1min 34.652secs with the best tires - 0.827secs faster than his best lap on race tyres and Michelin 0.252secs under the race lap faster than everyone, so that (Bridgestone-Shodan) Misano winner Valentino Rossi. Repsol confirmed that Pedrosa best lap was established with the tyres career.

That is especially impressive since returning on Monday marked the first (known) once the pneumatic valve-Honda has used Bridgestone tyres (who knows what may have happened behind closed doors in Japan).

However, Pedrosa gave little away in terms of its future plans for racing with the engine and it does not appear in a hurry to make this change.

"The bicycle is that the engine with pneumatic valves is very different, something that I am not used to because it is a bit more aggressive and I do not have much feeling," said Pedrosa. "It is not as smooth. It has other strengths, although there is still work to do in launching because the other [valve spring] bicycle is more attuned. I did a lot of turns, but the feelings are not bad at all. "

"Today's meeting is important evidence and Dani feels with the Bridgestone tyres was positive," confirmed team manager Kazuhiko Yamano. "He began the session with the engine valve spring and then switched to the pneumatic valve engine. The nature of these two bikes is different, but Dani was the fastest with pneumatic valve engine, its time for phases greatly improved. Of course, there are positive points and negative with the engine we are going to discuss now. "

Pedrosa will make its debut on Bridgestone race during the opening Grand Prix in Indianapolis Sept. 12-14.

Hayden, who lost his career and the test because of a heel injury, will remain in the Michelin tyres for the final five rounds of 2008.

Gresini of Shinya Nakano, who has piloted a Bridgestone-Shodan valve spring factory Honda in the last two rounds, set the second fastest lap time during the test Monday, 0.794secs slower than Pedrosa pace of the tyre.

Just as Pedrosa and Nakano, Kawasaki riders John Hopkins and Anthony West, besides Randy Puniet (LCR Honda) and Alex de Angelis (Honda Gresini) were also present on Monday.