Motegi MotoGP: Yamaha's Lorenzo fastest in first practice

Lorenzo and team-mate Valentino Rossi were the only riders to sit at the top of the times during the session, with Rossi the first to set a representative lap, a 1m46.265s.

Lorenzo, who suffered a shoulder sprain in a mini-bike crash last weekend, improved to 1m45.654s shortly afterwards.

While that would have been good enough to top the session, he went faster again on two occasions inside the final 10 minutes, eventually setting a time of 1m45.432s on his last lap.

Iannone improved late to split the Yamaha pair, 0.395 seconds behind Lorenzo, with championship leader Rossi third, a further 0.017s adrift.

Tech 3 rider Bradley Smith jumped up to fourth after the chequered flag to make it three Yamahas inside the top four, ahead of Dani Pedrosa on the lead Honda.

Andrea Dovizioso was sixth, from reigning world champion Marc Marquez, who is nursing an injured left hand for the second time this season.

In a tight pack, just 0.141s covers Iannone in second and Honda's Marquez in seventh.

Brothers Aleix and Pol Espargaro were eighth and ninth, ahead of Stefan Bradl, who crashed his Gresini-run Aprillia at Turn 11 with 90 seconds remaining.

In Suzuki's first home MotoGP event since 2011, Aleix Espargaro's team-mate Maverick Vinales was 13th, having run wide at Turn 3 late in the session.

Other than Bradl, Jack Miller was the only other rider to fall, at Turn 10, on his way to 22nd.

PRACTICE ONE TMES:

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m45.432s	-	15
2	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	Ducati	1m45.827s	0.395s	18
3	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m45.844s	0.412s	19
4	Bradley Smith	Tech 3	Yamaha	1m45.888s	0.456s	19
5	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	Honda	1m45.896s	0.464s	17
6	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	Ducati	1m45.947s	0.515s	17
7	Marc Marquez	Honda	Honda	1m45.965s	0.533s	17
8	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m46.234s	0.802s	17
9	Pol Espargaro	Tech 3	Yamaha	1m46.323s	0.891s	18
10	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia Gresini	Aprilia	1m46.371s	0.939s	16
11	Cal Crutchlow	LCR	Honda	1m46.551s	1.119s	15
12	Hector Barbera	Avintia Racing	Ducati	1m46.699s	1.267s	21
13	Maverick Vinales	Suzuki	Suzuki	1m46.765s	1.333s	17
14	Yonny Hernandez	Pramac Racing	Ducati	1m47.073s	1.641s	16
15	Takumi Takahashi	Honda	Honda	1m47.079s	1.647s	18
16	Scott Redding	Marc VDS	Honda	1m47.171s	1.739s	18
17	Nicky Hayden	Aspar	Honda	1m47.181s	1.749s	18
18	Katsuyuki Nakasuga	Yamaha	Yamaha	1m47.184s	1.752s	18
19	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia Gresini	Aprilia	1m47.304s	1.872s	16
20	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Racing	Ducati	1m47.364s	1.932s	18
21	Mike Di Meglio	Avintia Racing	Ducati	1m47.503s	2.071s	16
22	Jack Miller	LCR	Honda	1m47.539s	2.107s	16
23	Toni Elias	Forward Racing	Yamaha Forward	1m47.626s	2.194s	17
24	Loris Baz	Forward Racing	Yamaha Forward	1m48.083s	2.651s	18
25	Eugene Laverty	Aspar	Honda	1m48.625s	3.193s	18
26	Alex de Angelis	IodaRacing Project	ART/Aprilia	1m49.277s	3.845s	17
27	Kosuke Akiyoshi	AB Motoracing	Honda	1m49.846s	4.414s	15