Ocon: The confirmation we were looking for

The Frenchman is enjoying a resurgence this year after a mediocre 202 season, but with veteran Fernando Alonso drafted into the squad Ocon has raised his game impressively.

After securing his best qualifying position since his fifth-place at last season’s Styrian Grand Prix, Ocon summed up his afternoon at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya: “It feels very good today and I’m happy with how we managed today’s qualifying session.

"I think this is the confirmation we were looking for, as we’ve repeated the speed we had in Portimao at this track, which is good. The car has been great this weekend and I’m feeling very good at the wheel with the team around me.

"The factories are working hard to keep finding improvements and their hard work is paying off. Tomorrow will be a hard race and strategy will be interesting," added Ocon whose best effort four tenths of a second up on teammate Alonso who will line up 10th on the grid.

Spain's double F1 World Champion said afterwards: "It’s been a good weekend so far as we are in the top ten again, the second time this season. It shows the progress of our car so that’s good.

"In terms of the session today I think my out-lap in Q3 was a little messy, so there was more time for me to find. It’s very tight and obviously very difficult to overtake in the race, but we’ll try to have a good first couple of laps and see where we end up tomorrow as anything can happen in a race," concluded Alonso.

Alpine racing director Davide Brivio, Racing Director. added in the team report “It was a very good qualifying today with Esteban fifth, the best result of the year for us so far and Fernando also inside the top 10.

"We’re happy to have both cars in Q3 for the first time this year. The drivers are working well with their engineers in setting up the car and finding a good balance and even finding some small, but important, improvements from FP3 to qualifying.

"It’s a credit to everyone in the team who has done a good job this weekend. We want to keep the momentum going and capitalise on these good starting positions in tomorrow’s race," said Brivio.

In 2016 Alonso outqualified young gun Stoffel Vandoorne 21-0 which, in the end, destroyed the Belgian's career in the top flight, young Ocon is intent on ensuring the same does not happen to him as he did today.