Hamilton won't hold back at the start

Although teammate Fernando Alonso's pole position will give him an advantage into the first corner, Hamilton has made it clear that he is not going to automatically accept following the reigning world champion from the start.

"I think you have to run on your natural instincts and see how the start goes," said Hamilton about whether he will look for an opportunity to get past Alonso.

"If I get a better start and it looks like I can pass, then I probably will, but I won't do anything silly to risk pushing both of us out of the race.

"It is a long, long race and I think I feel good about our strategies and I feel we can come away with a one-two. So, it is important we are sensible."

Hamilton has said he expects McLaren to speak to both drivers before the start to ensure there is no embarrassing coming together.

"The team will speak to us before, but we are professional," he said. "We respect each other, we are teammates and we want to do a good job for the team, but we also want to win.

"We will go into that first corner probably not as aggressively as we would if we were going into it with a Ferrari.

"But we are going to be conservative and see what happens. We are on different fuel strategies, similar pace. So we'll have to see how it goes. It is going to be difficult tomorrow with the conditions and also you never know when the pace car is going to come out. We'll see."

Alonso said he did not expect any problems between Hamilton and himself at the first corner.

"The team will say to us something I think. We respect each other obviously and want the best for the other one. Inside the team we want to beat our opponent that this year seems to be Ferrari, and starting first and second at Monaco (the) aim is to finish first and second, because it is the most points.

"Apart from that, I don't think there are any problems between us and it should be just a normal race."