HANS Andersen admits he still has his eyes on the main prize despite his spluttering start to the Grand Prix campaign.

Pirates’ new boy has only picked up 12 points from the opening two rounds and is already a mighty 24 behind frontrunner Jason Crump.

But the Dane is adamant his goal is still to become world champion this year rather than realign his sights and settle for a lesser target.

Andersen has finished fifth in the World Championship in the past two years and was only eight points adrift of an overall podium place in 2008.

Two poor rounds in Prague and Leszno, where he only picked up six points apiece, means the pressure is firmly on him tonight in the Swedish GP at Gothenburg (6pm).

Andersen, who has stormed to victory in four rounds since making his GP debut as a Poole rider in 2002, said: “My aim at the start of 2009 was to become world champion.

“Just because I’ve had a poor start, you can’t just change the way you are.

“I’m still trying to fight for the championship. I’m not going to change my aim. That would be silly.

“So it’s to get back in the race.”

Andersen, set to make his Castle Cover Pirates comeback at home to Eastbourne on Wednesday after rejoining the club on loan from Peterborough, added: “Coming back to Poole, I’m not just hoping my GP form picks up.

“I hope it will pick up everywhere – in Britain, Sweden, Poland, Denmark and the GPs.

“It’s not the only reason why I’m going back to England, to be better in the GP, I want to be better all over the place.”

Asked if he felt not riding regularly in Britain for the first time since 2001 was to blame for him struggling this year, the Dane said: “I would say yes and no. It’s hard to say.

“It’s probably been the poorest start to a season for me for a long time.

“I’ve put so much effort into doing it right so I don’t know the exact reason why it’s happened.

“You have to look at things to try and find out why it’s different from the past.

“The one major change is not riding in England.

“I can’t say if it’s the reason why I haven’t been performing, but it’s a fact I’ve done less meetings at this stage.

“I just thought I could perform better with less meetings, but the way things have turned out, that hasn’t been the case.

“If I had a poor meeting, I was thinking about it too much, dwelling on it.

“When I was in England before, I usually had meetings the next day and the poor meeting was quickly out of your system.”

Grand Prix scorechart: 1 Crump 36 pts, 2 Jonsson 27, 3 Hancock 26, 4 Sayfutdinov 26, 5 Gollob 24, 6 N Pedersen 21, 7 Lindgren 21, 8 Adams 19, 9 Bjerre 15, 10 Ulamek 13, 11 Andersen 12, 12 Holta 11, 12 Harris 11, 14 Walasek 11, 15 Hampel 9, 16 Nicholls 5.