Esteban Ocon says the prospect of a "super close" qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix is "really awesome to see".

After his podium in Monaco, the Alpine driver was fifth fastest in Practice 2 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday, just three-tenths behind pacesetter Max Verstappen.

In fact, the entire top 10 was covered by just 0.55s in that FP2 session, while 16 drivers were within a second of the leading Red Bull.

“It’s going to be super close, that’s for sure,” said the Frenchman looking ahead to qualifying.

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“I mean, three-tenths I think is about 10 places. So it’s pretty awesome, really awesome to see that.

“The field is getting so close since a couple of races [ago], that means that the driver can make the difference.

"I hope it’s going to be a similar thing in quali, and I hope that we can have a chance obviously of fighting near the front.”

Alpine arrived in Spain setting big goals of leapfrogging Mercedes and fighting with Ferrari for the third-best team, a target so far they are achieving.

And Ocon praised the recent gains made by his team.

“I think so far, the car has felt more alive since Monaco, so since we are bringing the updates,” he revealed.

“I think it’s been awesome that the team kept pushing like that and kept pushing very aggressively into developments, and visually you can see how aggressive it is.

“But you know, it’s been only Friday on a normal track. It’s tomorrow really that we are going to see where we are exactly.”

As for teammate Pierre Gasly, he was P10 at the end of Practice 2 and hoped the stay there on Saturday.

“I would say it’s been a solid day for us in Barcelona," he stated.

"The car felt good and we’ve made a decent start to our weekend which has given us a foundation to build from for the rest of the weekend.

"It’s been good to be back at a permanent race track and a nice challenge with the revised circuit layout without the chicane, which makes the lap feel very quick.

"There’s a few small things for us to solve on our side – which is normal for any Friday – and I’m feeling confident that we can have a strong outcome tomorrow for qualifying where we aim for another Q3 appearance.”