F1 | Spanish GP, Renault finishes in the Top Ten on Friday at Montmelò

Renault is the surprise of Friday's free practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth round of the Formula One World Championship of the season. The transalpine team has in fact closed Top ten with both cars, achieving seventh place with Nico Hulkenberg and eighth with Jolyon Palmer. In the morning the latter had given up the seat to the young Russian test driver Sergey Sirotkin, who was stopped after 10 laps due to a hydraulic leak.

"It was a good Friday for us – Hulkenberg's comment – We completed our program and had no problems. As usual there are areas we are working on to improve ahead of qualifying. It wasn't easy to find the right grip, we were surprised by the good race pace we showed. If we manage to repeat ourselves tomorrow and in the race we can be satisfied".

"I found more feeling with the soft ones, even if there isn't much difference with the medium ones – declared Palmer – We had a productive session, riding a lot without any problems. With my engineers I will continue to work on some areas, but overall it was a good afternoon".

"I didn't lap much in FP1, but it's better for these problems to happen in free practice than in qualifying and the race -  Sirotkin's thought – At least this time I walked around more than in Sochi. The car ran well and I was able to do the necessary work while on the track. The hope is to have a clean future session, without problems. I'm sure this will happen, as the mechanics have worked hard".