Sensing one of his best chances of victory this season, Fernando Alonso promises that in Monaco he will "attack more than any other weekend".

Having finished third in four of the opening five races, the Spaniard, the most experienced driver in the history of the sport, with 360 starts, is only too aware that Monaco is the circuit that regularly springs surprises.

Aware that his Aston Martin doesn't have the outright pace of the Red Bull, and is hard-pressed to hold off Ferrari, Alonso believes that this weekend affords him the best opportunity of returning to the top step of the podium, and it's an opportunity he does not intent to allow to pass him by.

"If I tell you I don't come here thinking that I can win the race, I will lie to you because this is a one-off opportunity," he told reporters.

"We know Monaco, Singapore, they are specific race tracks that you need to gain the confidence on the free practice, get closer and closer to the walls," he added. "I will attack more than any other weekend."

Asked about Red Bull, he admitted: "They're better than everyone else. They did a better job, and they are dominating the season, and they deserve it. But we know there are a couple of weekends like this one that I come here thinking that I will try to win.

"Maybe it's our worst weekend, and we're out of the points, you never know, this is a very specific circuit. But there's these one-off opportunities that we try to maximise. We saw a gearbox failure for Max in Saudi in Q2, they had problems in Checo's car in Australia, free practice and qualifying, if one of those things happens on Sunday, automatically you close the gap massively."

Check out our Thursday gallery from Monaco here.