For a spherical mass, no. However, off-spherical masses have a component of force falling off more rapidly than 1/r2, and that does give some precession. Since the Sun isn't quite spherical, due to its rotation, Mercury shows some of that effect. There is also a precession effect in special relativity, because F=ma isn't quite right. These effects had to be considered in calculating what precession to expect for Mercury without general relativity, and they still left a discrepancy.
Mike W.
(published on 06/03/2013)
