The session is restarted with 16 minutes on the clock.

The stricken Sauber is hoisted up by a crane and away from the track as marshals scurry on the clean up. As ever, swift work and we should be back up and running shortly.

Pascal Wehrlein got an absolute mouthful of smoke there. He was right behind Felipe Nasr when his engine failed. 

Red flagpublished at 13:03 British Summer Time 28 May 2016

13:03 BST 28 May 2016

Drama straight at the off! Big, big engine failure for Felipe Nasr as smoke blows out from the rear of his Sauber. He's out of qualifying. 

Busy, busy, busy! Seventeen cars are out on the track already.

Off we go then! The first part of qualifying is under way.

No danger of rain for qualifying. Sunny skies above Monaco at the moment.

Lids are being strapped on as the drivers get ready to climb into their cars. Two minutes until qualifying gets under way.

Celebrities and sports personalities love a bit of Monaco. We've seen Louis Tomlinson from One Direction, Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri and Manchester United player Michael Carrick so far. Here's another one, singer Ronan Keating.

Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams gets up close and personal with BBC 5 live F1 reporter Tom Clarkson.

Bad news already for Kimi Raikkonen. He's been handed a five-place penalty for a gearbox change. 

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Monaco

Image source, Rex Features

It is a picture-perfect day on the Cote d’Azur and anticipation is building nicely ahead of what is undoubtedly the most finely poised qualifying session of the year so far. On Thursday, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo had the edge on Mercedes. The champions have made progress over the rest day on Friday but it remains agonisingly close. 

Mercedes’ data shows that, correcting for anomalies, the pace difference between Lewis Hamilton and Ricciardo on their first runs in final practice was exactly zero. On the same calculations, Hamilton had an edge of about 0.15secs later in the session but still has changes to make not to over-work his rear tyres before Rascasse, where he had some oversteer. And Ferrari, who were nowhere on Thursday, have made even more progress since than Mercedes. Hamilton remains the favourite for pole but it is going to be a nail-biting session.

Image source, Rex Features

I couldn't find a picture of Bruce McLaren from the 1968 Race of Champions, so here he is playing cricket with Graham Hill, Sir Stirling Moss and other F1 drivers from that year.

McLaren marking their anniversary with a win this weekend is incredibly unlikely, but you never know.

What they need is someone who has a proven track record of taking a team that seemed destined to struggle to overcoming the odds and winning a title in the most unexpected but memorable way.

Well hello there Mr Ranieri...

Image source, Force India