MOTEGI, Japan – Andrea Dovizioso headed the field for Ducati during the opening day of free practice for the Japanese Grand Prix at Twin Ring Motegi on Friday.

Dovizioso posted the best lap of the day at 1:45.353, during a dry FP1 session, but the bigger story was teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who only completed two laps of practice before withdrawing from the event due to continued pain in his injured left wrist.

Lorenzo sustained a hairline fracture in a crash two weeks ago at Buriram and underwent a CT scan in Utsunomiya Hospital, which was not positive for his ongoing recovery.

He will have a further MR scan Friday evening, which should give medical staff all the information necessary to decide on the best possible treatment for Lorenzo to speed up his recovery and determine how much time will be required before he returns to action.

“This morning we immediately started off very well in the FP1 session and my feeling was very good. For the race we will still have to improve, but starting off with such a good base on Friday morning really makes a difference,” noted Dovizioso. “We already know what to work on and the braking is surely the most important aspect in this circuit. We didn’t go out in the afternoon, even though we wanted to try a few things, but the track conditions made it too much of a risk to try and push hard.

“Our Desmosedici GP works particularly well here at Motegi and tomorrow we hope to find the track dry so as to be able to work for the race.”

Independent Cal Crutchlow was second-fastest overall on his LCR Honda, .105 of a second back of Dovizioso’s Ducati, followed by Johann Zarco in third for Monster Yamaha Tech 3.

Championship leader Marc Marquez landed fourth overall for Repsol Honda and Maverick Vinales completed the top five on the time sheets for the factory Movistar Yamaha squad.

Dani Pedrosa was 11th-quick overall, but fastest in the rain-plagued FP2 session on Friday.

Meanwhile, Lorenzo was understandably disappointed at not being able to compete at one of his stronger facilities.

“After doing as much as possible to quickly recover from the injury to my wrist caused by the crash in Thailand, today I tried to go out on track to see how I felt on the bike. Yesterday my feelings weren’t very positive and unfortunately today I had confirmation not only of the pain that the riding was giving me, but also that there was a serious risk of making the fracture worse,” said Lorenzo. “It’s a real pity not to be able to race here because Motegi is a circuit that I like a lot; it adapts well to the characteristics of the bike and I wanted to score a good result.

“I feel really bad for my team and for the fans, but now I only have to be patient and try and recover as best as possible to be ready in Australia or in Malaysia.”