Lorenzo leads first Motegi 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.