Valtteri Bottas, whose best result in Monaco was in 2019 when his finished third, is hoping for a "special" result this weekend.

Dropped by Mercedes in favour of George Russell at the end of 2021, the Finn is enjoying a remarkable season with Alfa Romeo and is currently just 8 points behind former teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Having made it to Q3 in five of the races thus far, the Finn has gone on to score points in every race except Saudi Arabia where he retired due to overheating.

"I am looking forward to this weekend's race," said the Alfa Romeo driver. "Monaco is always an interesting weekend, it's a home weekend for a lot of the drivers and it definitely has a feeling that you don't get from any other round in the calendar.

"I am really curious to see how the racing will be with the new generation of cars," he added, "this has been traditionally a difficult place for close racing and, should it be different this year, we could be in for something spectacular.

"I am confident approaching the weekend: we have been fighting with the top guys for two races in a row and I don't see any reason why we won't be able to do it again this time around.

"Of course, most of the weekend hinges on having a clean Friday and a good Saturday: if we're high up on the grid, we can potentially bring home a special result."

Check out our Thursday gallery from Monaco, here.