Pedrosa, Dovizioso taste RCV power.

Newly crowned 250 and 125cc world champions, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, completed their first MotoGP laps this afternoon at Valencia, when they were rewarded by Honda for their 2004 title triumphs with a test on the company's RC211V.

Pedrosa completed a substantial 59 laps (split between seven runs) and finished the day with a very impressive 1min 35.2secs best - enough to qualify the diminutive Spaniard 22nd on Sunday's grid.

But in terms of a more accurate comparison, that of fastest race laps, Pedrosa's performance was even better; he was just 0.6secs behind outgoing Honda rider Colin Edwards (the slowest of the six RCV competitors on Sunday) and would have ranked 17th fastest out of the 24 riders that started the GP.

Camel Honda's Max Biaggi set the fastest Valencia race lap with a 1min 33.582secs circulation early in Sunday's main event - and 'Dani' closing to within 1.7secs of the Roman Emperor (and 1.6secs of world champion Valentino Rossi) on his very first four-stroke ride is sure to ignite discussion that the prot?g? of Alberto Puig should graduate to the premier-class sooner rather than later.

However, Pedrosa later repeated his intention to defend his 250cc title next season - while labelling the test as one of the greatest experiences of his life.

"I was really curious about the bike and I was impressed by the power it has, yet at the same time how docile a four-stroke bike is - I'd never ridden one before," motogp.com reports Pedrosa as saying. "Every time I went out I felt more comfortable with the bike and I tried to adapt it more each time I came back to the garage.

"At the start it's difficult to control the power; you can't keep on the throttle all the time, it's impossible, and I didn't want to crash," he added. "It slides around more than a 250 and it's harder to get turned into the corners because it's heavier. It was a really interesting test, I was really looking forward to it and it turned out to be one of the most impressive experiences of my life.

"It was a nice gift, although my plan is to stay in 250 next season. I need much more physical preparation to ride a MotoGP bike."

Meanwhile, Dovizioso - who is due to graduate to the quarter-litre class in 2005 - reportedly lapped around 1-second slower than Pedrosa by the end of his own track time, and shared the Spaniard's sentiments of a day he'll never forget.

"It was amazing!" beamed the Italian after stepping from the ex-Alex Barros machine. "The RCV felt fantastic to ride although you need to be quite strong to change direction. I just didn't want to stop. It's great that Honda allowed us this test."