A rain shower before the start of Friday afternoon MotoGP practice at the Red Bull Ring meant riders spent much of the session sat in the 🥃pits waiting for the track to dry.

During that time, Andrea Dovizioso was filmed looking up at the TV monit🥂ors just as&nb💮sp;he saw the following tweet from Dorna being displayed on the live broadcast:

Dovizioso laughed as he read it, looking over at team manager Davide Tardozzi, who was watching the same screens but remain❀ed poker-faced behind his PPE mask.

"About the tweet I was laughing because it looks like Tardozzi is the person who will decide my future but it’s not like that," said Dovizioso," whose drawn-out contract negotiati🐷ons are thought to have stalled after being presented with a sizeable pay cut.

"It was funny because we a♎lways fight… Laughing together at many things because his character is very strange, it’s very crazy, but it was funny. Tardozzi was in the middle of𒆙 everything but he is not the guy who will take that decision."

Dovizioso's g🍒ood mood was probably helped by his best Friday performance of the season so far, finishing second to KTM's Pol Espargaro by just 0.044s in the dry morning session.

"I think the track helped us to be a bit faster because it’s good for our bike," said Dovizioso, who memorably passed Mar🅠c Marquez fo🅠r victory at the final corner one year ago.

"But yesterday I explained we studied a lot after Brno. We changed small things in the set-up, especially my way to brake had to change. That help✱ed me com🍌e back to a good feeling in the braking. I’m happy to feel that.

"If you’re too aggressive on the braking you can create problems – fron🤪t lock, slide on rear – and the ꧅tyres are already on the limit.

"Th♎en secondary things go wrong and it’s very, very difficult. This is what happened in Brno. But it’s always related to the change in the rear tyre. If we had the tyres from last year 🐼it wouldn’t happen. 

"This track also helped me here because it’s straight braking more or less everywhere. I was able to be consistent as well as havin꧃g good speed.

"For sure I hav♔e a big chance to be a [victory] contender. At the moment after one practice we are four with a good pace, but one practice is nothing. If we have one other dry session things can change and some other riders can fight with us for sure.

"In this trac🐎k, our competitors have become a bit stronger with acceleration compared to the past. I think the race won’t be any more just two or three riders like in th💟e past.

"But anyway I’m there. We have o💛ur chance, our card."

Dovizioso is currently 28-points behind Petronas Yamaha's Fabio Quart🌠araro, with just one🐎 podium from the opening three rounds.

Team-mate Danilo Petrucci was&nღbsp;twelfth fastest on Friday.