Hello and welcome to ESPN's live coverage of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Final practice was a fascinating one and suggested we might have a three-way fight between Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari.

Looks like a five-place grid penalty for Raikkonen tomorrow due to a gearbox change in his Ferrari. Never ideal, but around here that's a huge blow for Ferrari.

So is Ferrari and Red Bull's threat to Mercedes genuine this weekend? It's always wrong to read too much into practice times, of course, but the session clearly showed Red Bull's upgraded car, being driven by Daniel Ricciardo, is very pacey. Given how it looked on Thursday Red Bull might fancy its chances of a place on the front row.

There's a real excitement ahead of this session, but let's not think about the fight going on away from the front. McLaren fancies its chances of making it to Q3 and I don't think we've seen its true pace this weekend.

Toro Rosso's car looked good around here on Thursday, another indication of the team's chassis strength.

Christian Horner has told Sky Sports Red Bull has not unleashed the full potential of its car this weekend yet.

The sun is shining - which might not be the case tomorrow with rain forecast.

My head says Hamilton on pole, my heart says a first career pole for Ricciardo. Would be great to see a different name lining up at P1 - it would be a first career F1 pole position for the affable Aussie.

Cars have started making their way down the pit lane.

Track position crucial during this opening qualifying session, of course, with lots of traffic.

Also worth remembering the quickest lap on the ultra-soft appears to be on the second lap - so out-lap, flying lap, warm up lap, flying lap, seems to be what we'll see later on.

We already have a red flag. Smoke pouring out of Nasr's Sauber and he's pulled up on the run down to Tabac. He'll be starting 22nd, then...

Looks like the engine went as he came out of the tunnel.

Nasr's car is now being removed from the circuit. A great sight, seeing it balancing above the track with the harbour in the background. Well, a great shot if you aren't a Sauber employee...

Session will restart in one minute.

Qualifying back underway, 15:37 on the clock.

Only Force Indias are out on #supersoft. New #ultrasoft is the standard choice.

— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) May 28, 2016

Hamilton slows through Rascasse to give himself some space on track, and he starts a lap. He'll hope he only needs the one to get through to Q2. Lots of cars crossing behind him.

Hamilton goes 19.8s through sector one, four tenths off this morning's best.

Hamilton looks absolutely on it but he hits some traffic, Haryanto does well to dive out of the way.

Hamilton crosses in a 1:14.831.

Massa crosses 1.075s behind.

Vettel crosses four tenths slower before Rosberg posts his first time of the session, just 0.042s off Hamilton. Absolutely nothing between the two Mercedes drivers.

Kvyat goes into fourth with a 1:15.384.

Raikkonen, with a gearbox penalty looming tomorrow, goes sixth with his first run. He's nine tenths off the pace and half a second slower than Ferrari teammate Vettel.

Hamilton lowers his benchmark to 1:14.826, it appears he lost some time somewhere in the middle sector.

Vettel goes into P1 with a 1:14.610, that's two tenths quicker than the world champion.

Ricciardo's first lap puts him three tenths down on Vettel. Where has this Ferrari pace come from?

Verstappen yet to set a time but he's in the middle of a flying lap.

Verstappen is in the wall! He's binned it on the exit of the Swimming Pool chicane!

Several drivers have clouted that kerb on the exit but seems he did so and then lost control of the car.

Red flags, but that has ruined a great lap for Alonso. He'll need another run later.

He's taken so much speed into that chicane, taken the steering arm off his wheel and causing him to slide into the wall. Long, long afternoon awaits for Verstappen tomorrow.

Remarkably quick turnaround for the Monaco marshals, who have already got the car off the circuit and cleaned up most of the debris.

These last six minutes are going to be absolutely frantic for those drivers near the drop-zone.

Magnussen under investigation for leaving the pits before the light went green.

One of the guys up against it is Alonso, he needs to absolutely nail these laps now.

Bret says: "Max from hero to zero"

Alonso's first lap on the ultra-softs is a 1:16.010, good enough for 13th.

Ericsson, Palmer, Wehrlein and Haryanto the men in the drop zone. Verstappen and Nasr already out.

Ericsson climbs into 16th, pushing Magnussen down to 17th and into the drop-zone.

Ericsson has dropped back down into 17th after Magnussen's latest lap...

Hulkenberg the only man in the top ten currently on track. He moves over to let Perez past through Swimming Pool...

Perez improves to fifth fastest on the ultra-soft tyre.

The chequered flag has fallen. Ericsson can't improve on his time, so he's out of the session...

Alonso jumps up to 10th, Grosjean jumps up to eighth.

Ericsson, Palmer, Haryanto, Wehrelin drop out of the session. Verstappen and Nasr didn't make it to the end of the session either, so they were already out.

Good job from Haryanto, out-qualifying Wehrlein, though worth noting it's the German's first weekend around here. Haryanto would have had several years here in GP2 and GP3. Still, good news for the Indonesian driver with his seat not looking certainty all season...

Before any of you accuse me of being unfair to Haryanto, he admitted having that advantage over Wehrlein in his media sessions yesterday. Still, good to see him making it a closer fight than many predicted ahead of the season.

Q2 is under way, clock already ticking and a long queue in the pit lane.

Alex says: "To me it smells a bit fishy that Vettel (and only Vettel) is so much quicker all of a sudden."

Drivers stacking up in the final sector, hoping to get as much space on track as possible.

Kvyat looks really on it this weekend and he crosses in 1:14.819, but is immediately pipped to P1 by Sainz by 0.01s.

Vettel briefly takes P1 but Hamilton crosses half a second clear to move into the lead.

Rosberg and Ricciardo slot in behind Hamilton but are both four tenths behind the world champion.

Is that Hamilton showing the true pace of the Mercedes?

Button, Grosjean, Gutierrez and Magnussen in the drop zone.

Grosjean having a wobbly run through the middle sector but he keeps his car pointing in the right direction. Love an onboard shot at Monaco...

Alonso can't improve on his second ultra-soft run but stays ninth. Teammate Button can't climb out of the drop zone.

The last time we had a pole lap below 1 minute 14 secs it was with a 2.4 litre V8 engine in #2013. #F1 #innovationculture

— Prof Mark Jenkins (@f1professor) May 28, 2016

Looks like we may see one this afternoon...

Siddhesh says: "Time for Mercedes to rename their qualy mode setting to God Mode. Where did Hamilton pull that gap?!"

Bottas and Massa are finally on the board but both in the drop-zone, 12th and 16th respectively. Still five minutes to rectify that.

Massa climbs with his latest run but only to 11th.

Rosberg coming out for another run on the ultra-softs. Replays show Rosberg hitting the inside barrier at the Swimming Pool and nearly doing a Verstappen...

That might explain some of that four tenths gap to Lewis.

A bit of race strategy from Red Bull. Ricciardo sets a 1:14.357 on super-softs to move into second -- they will be his race tyre if it stays dry.

Very shrewd stuff from Red Bull, could be a big call if the race does stay dry tomorrow.

Vettel moves into P2. This grid tomorrow I would take! Three different cars on the front two rows.

Chequered flag falls and can anyone improve at the death?

Gutierrez climbs to 12th...

Button improves but only for 13th. Perez climbs to eighth. Magnussen can't improve on 16th.

Alonso and McLaren make it to Q3! Someone get the Chandon....

Rosberg moved himself into P1 at the end there, too, with a very good 1:14.043.

Kvyat and Sainz sixth and seventh as well, they'll fancy their chances of a good grid spot.

Dropping out of that session - Bottas, Gutierrez, Button, Massa, Grosjean, Magnussen.

Q3 is about to get under way and it should be a cracker. Genuinely difficult to predict...

Hamilton reporting something wrong with his engine and he's pulled over in the pit lane!

"I've got no power," he tells Mercedes. They're running down the pit lane to retrieve his car. Disaster for the world champion.

Race against the clock for Mercedes to get the world champion out again...

Hulkenberg and Perez lead the way early on but Ricciardo is absolutely flying through the final sector...

Wow. Ricciardo nails a 1:13.622! What a lap that is. Can anyone beat it?

Vettel is nearly a second down on Ricciardo's benchmark. Raikkonen 1.1s behind.

Hamilton is back out on track.

Rosberg can't beat Ricciardo's time, 0.291s down on the Red Bull man. Ricciardo quickest through sectors two and three.

Hamilton out there while there's no traffic. Big, big laps ahead for the world champion.

So, Hamilton finishes his warm-up lap and he's going to hit traffic. Ricciardo is just up the road. Looks like he's slowed down... More issues?

All ten cars on track and we have no idea who is going to be on pole. Love it.

Hamilton starts another lap - it's now or never but it looks like he's bailed out of it immediately.

At the moment Lewis will be starting 10th. He has time to get round the circuit and start another lap before the end of the session.

Hulkenberg moves up to fourth for Force India, splitting the Ferraris.

Hamilton fastest through the fast sector by one tenth....

He's flying! But will it be enough...

No! He's only third!

Rosberg can't improve on second either! He moves to a tenth behind. Maiden pole position for Ricciardo!

Hamilton looked absolutely on it but the pace disappeared through the final sector.

Vettel complaining the car got worse, swearing for good measure. He'll start fourth...

"Woooooo! Yeah!" cries Ricciardo. "My time! My f---ing time!"

Man on a mission.

Tomorrow is going to be absolutely fascinating, rain or no.

That's all we have time for this afternoon - we'll be back tomorrow for the Monaco Grand Prix, will it be two out of two for Red Bull? Join us again to find out.