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Max Verstappen has described his Red Bull RB13's upgrade as a 'massive step' after getting to within six tenths of the pole-winning time in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

With Red Bull giving its much vaunted updated RB13 its first track appearance in Barcelona this weekend, Verstappen has shown encouraging pace around the venue that yielded his first F1 win twelve months ago.

Though still trailing the pace setting Mercedes' and Ferraris in qualifying, Verstappen was pleased to get the gap down from more than a second in Russia to little more than half-a-second in Spain en route to fifth on the grid.

With a Renault engine upgrade still to come in the upcoming races, Verstappen is nonetheless pleased with the gains made already.

"We have come from 1.5 to 0.6s already which is a massive step, we just need to keep on pushing from the car side and wait on what comes on the engine, we cannot control that. But, we are definitely more positive at the moment," he said.

"Everywhere was an improvement. I think the car was in a balance, from entry to mid and mid to exit of the corner, where we were sometimes struggling in one certain phase I think now we are all around a much more stable balance and you can push a lot more, I think it showed today.

"Personally for me, the balance was really good, now we just need to keep on working to get even more downforce on the car. If you look at the last sector, I was third quickest of all the drivers so that shows we are on a good way.

Looking forward, Verstappen admits it will be tough to chip away at the slimmer margin but has faith Red Bull can achieve its objectives to get back in the victory hunt this year.

"It's easier to make a slow car faster and close that gap as 1.5s is a lot, now it's 0.6s. Now will it be hard to close these 0.6s but we're working on it."