Away go the cars on the formation lap and there's an amazing moment as Fernando Alonso comes over the radio live to wish Jenson Button good luck. Love it!

Allan McNish
BBC Radio 5 live Formula 1 analyst

What I like about it, it's still the same circuit as it has been for years - winding up the hill, through the same iconic corners as the legends of the sport have been before.

It's a real street circuit - a little smoother than it used to be and if you are at the front of this grid, you can control it and that's where Ferrari are - right at the front.

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The last five races have all seen the safety car deployed. Will we see it out again today?

An appearance could work to Lewis Hamilton's advantage.

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Monaco is crawling with stars - Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, known for playing Thor in the Marvel films, was speaking to Jennie Gow on 5 live...

(She accidently called him Liam but we will brush over that...)

"The energy and buzz from everyone here is pretty special.

"It's one thing to see it on TV but to watch them in real life is something else - the degree of difficulty is extreme.

"I am backing my fellow Aussie Daniel Ricciardo - my mate!"

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Monaco

Strategy-wise, it’s a one-stop race. The ultra-soft is so durable it will do the whole race, but the rules dictate teams have make a stop, so the question becomes when?

The cross-over point at which a new super-soft becomes quicker than a used ultra-soft is about 25 laps, although a safety car or virtual safety car moves that earlier in the race. From then on, teams will be looking for a window to stop and come out on a clear track. It’s all about track position.

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Five minutes to go until lights out. Tune into BBC Radio 5 live - online or on the radio - for full race coverage.

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BBC Sport's Jamie Strickland: The contrasting scales of the two events is one of their most striking differences. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway sprawls across 1,000 acres in total, with 253 of those comprising the track's infield.

The circuit proudly boasts that eight world-famous landmarks could fit in these 253 acres with room to spare: the White House, Vatican City, the Taj Mahal, the Colosseum, Yankee Stadium, Rose Bowl Stadium, Liberty Island, and Churchill Downs.

Monaco, meanwhile, covers an area of just 0.78 square miles, making it the world's second smallest independent state after the Vatican. New York's Central Park boasts a greater land area.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Monaco

Ferrari have a bit of a quandary heading into this race. If Kimi Raikkonen gets a decent start from pole, the race is effectively in his pocket unless something happens. But Ferrari would surely rather team-mate Sebastian Vettel win for the sake of the championship. Do they let it play out? Do they try to engineer a situation where Vettel can get ahead? Do they impose team orders? Tricky.

Raikkonen was asked about racing into the first corner and avoiding a collision, and replied: “We know what we are doing, we are racing for the team and, y’know, we have certain rules and respect against each other. We are allowed to fight but obviously, we have to do it as clean as we can and not take each other out.” Vettel echoed that, saying: “We’re here to race each other.” But when questioning moved on to whether the team would brief them on behaviour, Raikkonen got a bit surly. “I don’t know why people expect that it is something different than it’s been the last two years,” he said. “Nothing has changed. Just try to make a stupid story out of nothing.”

None of which, obviously, addresses the fundamental issue.

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Luke McIntosh on #bbcf1 has more confidence in Lewis Hamilton than Nikli Lauda. He's predicting the Briton to win the race.

You can make your predictions here.

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The drivers have gathered on the grid now to hold a minute's silence to remember the victims of last week's attack at the Manchester Arena.

Jennie Gow has just managed to grab a word with Niki Lauda on the grid and the Mercedes non-executive chairman predicts "eighth, ninths, 10th" for Lewis Hamilton.

BBC Sport's Jamie Strickland: One of the shared traits of both races is their longevity, which gives each a direct connection to a very different age and in turn adds to their allure.

The first Monaco Grand Prix was held in 1929, while the Indy 500 boasts an even longer history, dating back to the inaugural 1911 event won by Ray Harroun, who famously pioneered the rear-view mirror on his race-winning car.

Meanwhile, the winner of the first Monaco Grand Prix, William Grover-Williams, would go on to make his on the world in a rather more poignant way. After drifting away from motorsport in the 1930s, Grover-Williams later became a spy and Resistance fighter in Nazi-occupied France during World War Two.

Grover-Williams was later captured and deported to Berlin, where he was executed at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. However, rumours persist to this day that he actually survived the war and returned to live with his wife under an assumed identity.

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Jennie Gow is prowling the grid for celebrities to chat to. Listen in on BBC Radio 5 live right now.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Monaco

One of the heroes of qualifying was Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz in sixth place. The Toro Rosso has good mechanical grip and traction and is well suited to the Monaco track and the Spaniard went with it all the way. “Very happy, very happy,” he said. It is a great chance for the team to score major points for the first time this year.

Team-mate Daniil Kvyat was not far off Sainz all weekend but traffic affected his hopes of getting into Q3. But the McLaren penalties put him ninth on the grid, so the Russian, too, is eyeing points.

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Got a Star Wars nerd running the F1 Twitter account today....

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Monaco

In many ways, Monaco qualifying was like a session in which people seemed to do their best not to be on pole position. Sebastian Vettel had the pace to do it, but made mistakes at Mirabeau on both his Q3 laps. Daniel Ricciardo felt it “certainly wasn’t far out of reach” but was critical of his team for sending him out behind traffic which scuppered the plan for a ‘push’ out lap and then a flier.

Through the middle came Kimi Raikkonen, for his first pole for nine years. Despite the long gap, the Finn was, characteristically, low-wattage in his reaction. “I’ll happily take it,” he said.

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The last time Kimi Raikkonen started on pole Max Verstappen was in his bedroom doing his homework.

Verstappen was just 11 when Raikkonen secured his place at the front of the grid for 2008 French Grand Prix.

Raikkonen went on to finish second in the race with his then Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa winning.

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