Carlos Sainz Jr, when asked about today’s free practices he said: „Its been a positive Friday, we know this track is good for us, you know the straights and the compromise we need to find on downforce compared to our direct competitors, but i think we've done our homework well.” Sainz Jr belives that in the qualifying session he can perform well and has been pretty confident about his pace during today's sessions. He has been satisfied with the car, especially since the team brought some new parts including a new floor, and as he said this new improvement brings some encouragement for the driving.

Nico Hulkenberg said that today has been a good step forward and he is very happy about today. Hulkenberg admitted that the improvement of the floor feels positive and both of the cars will be pushing hard during the qualifying and the race. When asked about if he changed any setups due to the fact that he will be starting from the back, he simply and honestly admitted that he did not make any changes into that. He has chosen the optimum and fastest set up and he looks for the balance in the performance of his car, with no big gap between qualifying and the race. He admitted that it might be hard to beat Force India due to their strong pace especially today. Hulkenberg said: „You know, it's been ironic, since in Budapest we thought it was more for us [the track] and it turned out to not be that great and here we came with no expectations and it seems to be perhaps a bit better.”

The Renault Sport F1 drivers have had a decent pace during the Friday's free practice sessions. In FP1, Hulkenberg scored P8 and Sainz Jr P10. During FP2, Sainz Jr scored P8 and Hulkenberg P11, and he managed to be ahead of one of his direct opponents Esteban Ocon (P13).