A pneumatic tire including at least one component having a rubber composition including at least one diene based elastomer and a silica that prior to mixing with said elastomer is prehydrophobated with a fluorinated silane of the following formula: R.sub.f--R.sup.1--SiX.sub.3-x--R.sup.2.sub.x I wherein R.sub.f is a perfluorinated group optionally containing one or more heteroatoms; R.sup.1 is a divalent alkylene group, arylene group or mixture thereof, substituted with one or more heteroatoms or functional groups, containing about 1 to about 16 carbon atoms; R.sup.2 is a lower alkyl group; X is a halide, a lower alkoxy group or an acyloxy group; and x is 0 or 1.