Five themes to watch for in Monaco

Vettel's trophy cabinet

Sebastian Vettel is not one of these drivers who downplays the important of specific races. He has never won at Monaco in any category and would be delighted to take his 15th grand prix victory this Sunday afternoon. Anyone suspecting that he couldn't cut it on the streets of Monaco after being resoundingly beaten by his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber last year will have been won over by his impressive qualifying performance. But taking pole is one thing; it's quite another to control one of the toughest races in the world for 78 laps. But the German has looked imperious in practice and has shown no signs of being wary of the barriers. This is his race to win and, quite possibly, the only one who can beat him is himself. Could this be another tick on the Vettel checklist of becoming one of the all-time greats?

How many times will the drivers pit? © LAT

One stop or two... or three?

In the build-up to this weekend, talk was of a super soft tyre that degrades the second a driver looks at it and the possibility of a chaotic race strategically. The two days of running so far suggest that the race will be far more straightforward, with all the evidence pointing to a likely two-stopper. Most reckon that, in terms of overall speed, two stops is the way to go. But depending on track position, making only one pitstop, gaining track position in the process and then keeping a bunch of quicker cars behind you, could net the best overall result. Expect the majority of the drivers to start with the intention of doing a two-stop strategy, but to consider switching depending on the race situation. One thing to bear in mind is that all too often this season, the evidence of practice has not carried over to the race. So who knows? Although a three-stop strategy seems out of the question right now, the way the track behaves come the race could change all of that. As drivers are so keen on saying - anything is possible.

Magic Maldonado

GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado came into Formula 1 with the help of Venezuelan oil money, but those in the know were aware that he was a decent driver with a secret weapon - his speed around Monaco. He will start the race from a career-best eighth (following Lewis Hamilton's penalty) and has impressed Williams - and his team-mate Rubens Barrichello - with his performances this weekend. Remarkably, this is the first weekend that Maldonado hasn't put a scratch on the car and he is looking odds on to take the beleaguered outfit's first points finish of the year. Maldonado has won three races here in his career, one in the Renault World Series and two in GP2 (without the aid of reversed grids) and having beaten Barrichello, he has shown signs of being able to carry his form through to F1 level. He's not going to win, but he might just be one of the stars of the race.

Hamilton will start from ninth place © LAT

Hamilton's fightback

"I'm absolutely thrilled with seventh place," said Lewis Hamilton with a grin when he was asked how he felt about what happened in qualifying. The 2008 Monaco winner, one of the pre-race favourites, was among those to suffer from the red flag that flew for Sergio Perez and things went from bad to worse when he was bumped back another two places for cutting the chicane. From ninth place, a top-five finish would be an acceptable salvage job, But this is Hamilton, whose win three years ago came despite crashing early in the race. With the DRS activation zone located on the start/finish straight, it's going to be tough to make assisted passes, so keep a very close eye on him on the brakes into the chicane, where he is likely to do most of his passing.

The bump of doom

Sergio Perez and Nico Rosberg both had major crashes when they lost it on the huge bump in the braking zone for the chicane. Most drivers reckon that this has become more severe since last year, which means that if there are going to be collisions come the race, chances are they will be at the chicane. Remember that 2008 race, when Adrian Sutil was denied a fourth place finish when Kimi Raikkonen clattered into him after losing it on that same bump. Chances are, most drivers will be a little more circumspect after what happened to Perez, but with passing places at a premium, there may be some who feel that they have to make a move even if it does prove to be risky. Hopefully, if anything does go wrong, no-one will be unfortunate enough to hit the same piece of barrier that Perez did...and which was so narrowly avoided by Rosberg.