"You have the history all around, you can just feel it, and the atmosphere is fantastic."

In testing for this weekend's race, at the Le Castellet track close to Marseille, both McLaren and Ferrari posted fast times.

Hamilton was fastest on Tuesday, Raikkonen was fastest on Wednesday.

This suggests as always that the outcome of Sunday's glittering showpiece event will be close and, as always, is likely to be decided on Saturday in the qualifying session.

There is so little room for overtaking on the narrow street track that the man who takes pole has the best opportunity to win by far providing he can make a clean start and keep a clear head.

But with heavy rain and cloudy conditions prevalent in the Cote d'Azur this week and forecast for the weekend, it may be not only the bikini-clad beauties on the yachts who are looking up hopefully at the skies.

At least Hamilton will not have to contend with the intra-team rivalry created by his former partner double world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso this weekend.

Having returned to Renault, for whom he won in 2006, Alonso is bidding to complete a hattrick of triumphs in the principality. He won last year in contentious circumstances for McLaren when it ordered Hamilton to follow him in second place.

Alonso has said it is "unrealistic" to expect him to win again having returned to Renault, but his replacement at McLaren Finn Heikki Kovalainen could turn out to be a major threat on a track that often springs a surprise.

(Agencies via China Daily May 23, 2008)