James Toseland may be facing his first MotoGP event on an 'unknown' track this weekend at Estoril, but the double World Superbike champion has no doubts about the potential of his newly-improved machinery.

After spending his first two MotoGP races with the underpowered spring-valve M1 engine, Toseland and Tech 3 team-mate Colin Edwards will get their first taste of the pneumatic-valve powerplant - as used by factory riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo - during the Portuguese Grand Prix.

"We just bolted the [new] engines in yesterday, so I'm looking forward to that," said Toseland, sixth in his first two MotoGP races. "It's going to be a tough weekend - this is the first [MotoGP race] I've come to without knowing the circuit - but with the new engine I'm certainly going to have a bike that's capable of finishing on the podium here. So it's down to me to work hard to learn the track and get the best result we can."

Tech 3 will be hoping that the new engine can convert the team's proven qualifying speed into a full race distance.

So far this season, Edwards has qualified third on the grid for both events - with Toseland second and eighth - but Toseland's sixth positions remain the highest race result.

Edwards was seventh in Qatar and fell at Jerez.