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Can Sebastian Vettel Extend Championship Lead In Glorious Monaco?

Can Sebastian Vettel Extend Championship Lead In Glorious Monaco?

Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton will continue their championship battle in the sport's most glamorous city.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Monaco might be the playground for the rich and famous and no more so than the weekend of the Grand Prix but will the streets belong to Sebastian Vettel or Lewis Hamilton come Sunday night?

The Formula One driver's world championship has easily been the most exciting it's been in seven season at the beginning of 2017 and now the sport has rocked up to its most iconic venue, Monaco.

So far this season Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Mercedes Lewis Hamilton have won four of the five races between them with only Valtteri Bottas' Russian victory the only other winner.

Hamilton's win last time out took him to within six points of Vettel. Image: PA

Hamilton finds himself in the strange position of battling someone other than his Silver Arrows teammate after three seasons that belonged to him or Nico Rosberg.

And practice this weekend has shown that despite being the man at the top of the podium at the last race in Barcelona he's unlikely to claim the lead in the title race this week.

The Ferrari's have looked great around the tight streets of Monte Carlo and despite Mercedes often having the qualification advantage it looks like the Prancing Horse the will be on the front row on Sunday.

Vettel looks fastest right now but will it be enough come qualifying and the race. Image: PA

Overtaking is famously difficult around the iconic circuit so qualifying will be important however luck and tactics will still play a part.

Mercedes certainly got one over on their opponents last time out in Spain in regards to the tactics and that could bode well for Hamilton's chances.

The role played by Bottas in Spain was perfect but it also required the team to make some very bold calls on what time to pit the Brit.

Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen, in the other Ferrari, will have important roles to play all season as they very much look the slower cars in each of the perspective teams.

Glitz, glamour, beauty and racing, what more could you want. Image: PA

Of course it's not just about the front two teams and Red Bull will be hoping to upset the apple cart, especially as only a mistake in last year's race cost Daniel Ricciardo the victory here.

It is Max Verstappen who looks best of the rest at the moment having split the two Mercs in the final practice session, finishing below Bottas in fourth.

Further down the track it's not going to be a great start to the weekend for a Fernando Alonsoless McLaren team as their woes continue.

Button is back for one race but has inherited Alonso's problems. Image: PA

As the two time world champion races in the Indy 500 later on Sunday Jenson Button is back in the car after his semi-retirement last season.

However it was revealed during FP3 that the former world champion faces a 15 place grid penalty after changes to his engine that were outside of Alonso's allotted changes.

Stoffel Vandoorne did at least manage to get his car into the top 10 during the last practice session but does face a three place grid penalty himself after causing a crash in Spain.

Sahara Force India will have to work extra hard to keep up their record of scoring double points in every race this season, the only team to have done so.

Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon's cars have struggled for pace all weekend and Ocon became the second Monaco rookie to crash in practice on Saturday after Lance Stroll did the same on Thursday.

Ocon's car lifted from the track after his crash, good luck to the engineers. Image: PA

That means the team face a race against time to get the car ready for qualifying.

If anyone can get the most of a bad situation though it may be the Force India drivers who have massively overachieved so far this year.

Toro Rosso have been having a great weekend up to now and could be the surprise package.

So will Vettel stretch his lead over Hamilton with a third victory of the season or can Hamilton get back to the top of the leaderboard?

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