Lando Norris going with the casino theme for his McLaren race helmet today.

This could be one of those races when the rain comes and changes everything. Here's BBC Weather's Ian Fergusson.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Monaco

Alexander Albon’s strong debut season continues in the Toro Rosso, the Anglo-Thai choosing the best race possible to make it into the top 10 on the grid for the first time. He said he was “happy” to do so, but was there a tinge of disappointment there? He was nearly 0.4secs down on team-mate Daniil Kvyat, who on Thursday he had appeared quicker than for much of the day.

“It wasn’t easy out there as I couldn’t find a good rhythm - it wasn’t as good as Thursday,” Albon said. “I was on the back foot for most of the session trying to get the tyres to work. It was also a matter of getting confidence. You arrive at Turn One, the tyres are really cold as you’ve spent Sector Three going at pedestrian pace, and you get to the first corner not knowing exactly what’s going to happen! However, we can be happy with P10 in Monaco as it can always lead to something good.”

Image source, Getty Images

Andero95: Jarno Trulli's only win, Robert Kubica masterclass in 2010, Ayrton Senna multiple masterclasses and Michael Schumacher last pole 2012.

Image source, Getty Images

And Sebastian Vettel also tried to mess his own chances up this weekend by crashing in practice.

The shake of the head said it all. This was Charles Leclerc's reaction to basically being stitched up by his own team yesterday.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Monaco

Why are Ferrari struggling at the moment? Sebastian Vettel thinks the reason is clear, but not the solution. “It’s a bit strange for us at the moment one session is good for us and the next session is not,” he said. “That is really to blame. It is a lack of pace and a lack of pace mostly comes form understanding the tyres and we struggle more than last year. that’s it but it’s not so easy to solve.

"Other people at the moment find that window more often than us and more regularly. that’s the key point. Here we struggle with the front axle and if you don’t feel the front axle you don’t know where the car is gonna go. Naturally you don’t come off the brakes and just go for it because it will go where you don’t want it to go.

"That’s the problem. I don’t think the car is as bad as it looks right now but certainly it is inconsistent to get the tyres to where they want to be. Which maybe by harder work, by luck, by fortune, whatever, other people seem to struggle less.”

Image source, Getty Images

Former F1 driver Eddie Irvine is in the paddock this weekend, and he loves it: "This is the greatest event in the world. Nothing compares: the tennis, golf - since I retired I've been to all sorts - but nothing comperes to Monaco.

The former Ferrari driver talks on the current situation in the team, he says: "It’s a very Italian team and it’s going to take some time to work.

"Leclerc is very important, he's the future of Ferrari and if he is not good enough they need to get another guy - he’s looking like he is, but he's not Michael Schumacher.

"Lewis is the top performer now but Jenson Button beat him and… they need to really look for the next legend and I hope Leclerc is the next legend, but the jury is out."

At the post-qualifying news conference though, Valtteri Bottas was more concerned with how the Finland ice hockey team were getting on. They were drawing with Russia at the time of the question, but the story has a happy ending as Finland went on to win 1-0.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer in Monaco

Valtteri Bottas was disappointed to miss out on pole by such a small margin - just 0.086secs. “I felt I had it,” he said. In theory, the Finn has a chance to get ahead of Lewis Hamilton at the start - as Hamilton did to him in Spain last time out - but Bottas did not exactly sound super-confident about it.

“For sure we always aim for a good start,” he said, “but here it’s a super-short distance from start to the first corner so normally not many position changes but obviously I’ll try to do a good start and as a team we want to be one-two again. Obviously for me then it’s going to be waiting for any opportunities that come up.”

Hamilton said: “We don’t have team orders; we’re currently fighting for a World Championship. The great thing is that Toto and the team allows us to race, to battle it out. We’re responsible men, we always talk about turn one in every scenario, whatever the track, the last one, every single one, when we’re one and two and how we respect or we can be aggressive but ultimately we still want to be one and two so we both know where the limitations are.”

Image source, EPA

Stuart Longley: 1996. Craziest race ever. Damon Hill denied the Monaco victory his father tasted so many times because of a smoking engine. Polesitter Schumacher crashing out on the formation lap, and Panis taking his only victory, leading home just FOUR cars!

Matt Claypole: Has to be Jules Bianchi finishing P9 and picking up points in 2014. That was a feel good moment. *Sigh*, I still miss him...

Image source, Getty Images

Doing the rounds the Monaco pit lane today are:

• Chef Nusret Gokce - or "Salt Bae" as he's nicknamed on social media.
• Kardashian 'momager' Kris Jenner and fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger
• Various models
• And Grey's Anatomy's Patrick Dempsey.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Sounds like Gunther Steiner is a bit happier with Kevin Magnussen than he was at the end of the last race, when K Mag forced team-mate Romain Grosjean off the track in Spain twice, as you can see below.

The Netflix star and Haas boss Gunther Steiner has been speaking to Jennie Gow. Asked on what it's like to be team boss in Monaco, he says: "It's a lot of pressure and responsibility to be a boss, you see the cool side when you go racing and Monaco is one of the best places to race.

"We're pleased with Kevin, and after Pierre Gasly got the penalty he starts in P5 and we should get back some points which we desperately need.

"Everyone asks me what my favourite memory is of Niki... there's not one favourite memory. He is a story he is just... a lot of people saw him on TV and he was just the same in real life, I loved working with him and I will really miss him."

We couldn't talk about Kimi Raikkonen without mentioning some moody team radio messages, just like these ones.

This though is truly great.

"Support from home" was the caption Kimi Rainkkonen added to this fantastic video of his two children dancing to the famous F1 podium song: Les Toreadors.

Despite his efforts to try and cancel the team's celebrations he was greeted with cake... after arriving 15 minutes late.

Doesn't he look happy? Absolutely delighted. A true heart-warming moment, as this picture shows. Delighted.

Image source, Luke Smith

It's a landmark day for Kimi Raikkonen. Race 300 today, although he is doing what he can to downplay the achievement saying it was "no different" to any other race.

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 Live

It's pretty phenomenal racing here, out of 21 races this one stands alone. It's a tight twisty, narrow circuit with mostly slow speed corners, but the main thing is that overtaking is tricky and there will be a bit of argy-bargy, so it's about trying to get through and make no errors today.