Pedrosa shines on Bridgestone debut
Added on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
Pedrosa in action with Bridgestone.
Dani Pedrosa made an impressive start to life with Bridgestone at a Honda testing session in Misano, taking nearly a second from his best race lap time.
Pedrosa, who sensationally split from struggling tyre manufacturer Michelin yesterday, tested the Bridgestone tyres on which he will complete the remainder of the 2008 season today, posting a time of 1:34.652 at the venue of the San Marino Grand Prix.
Pedrosa was also riding Honda’s new pneumatic-valve engine, currently being ridden competitively by teammate Nicky Hayden.
Pedrosa, who has seen his title challenge all but wiped out following a series of poor results in recent rounds, is hoping for a similar change in fortunes to those experience by Valentino Rossi, who made the same change in the off-season.
Speaking after the test, Pedrosa said: “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.”
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