Jorge Lorenzo shrugged off shoulder concerns to top both practice sessions at the Japanese MotoGP on Friday.

The Spanish Yamaha rider, who is just 14 points behind championship leader Valentino Rossi, hurt his shoulder in a minibike accident just days ago, but his time of one minute, 44.731 seconds was the day's quickest in Motegi.

Honda's Dani Pedrosa was the only other rider to break 1:45, finishing the day with a time 0.128secs slower than Lorenzo's.

There were concerns for Rossi, with his time only the eighth best of the day and 0.823secs adrift of his title rival.

Ducati duo Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso were third and fourth quickest respectively, ahead of Brad Smith.

Lorenzo, a three-time winner in Japan including the past two years, had topped the timesheet for almost the entire first session.

He set the fastest time nine minutes into the 45-minute session and was never headed.

Lorenzo's time was a 1:45.432, well clear of Iannone (+0.395secs) and Rossi (+0.412secs).But as riders opted for the softer tyre options in the day's later session, those times were always going to be topped.