Monaco race day diary

It's race day in Monaco. The weather has been fantastic all weekend and it's perfect again for the Grand Prix.

The crowds coming in today on the train were much greater than yesterday. Tens of thousands pouring into the Principality. There are still plenty of grandstand seats left, though at Tabac, St Devote, Swimming Pool, Chicane. Not surprising really as they are between €400 and €450 each!

The most affordable place to watch from is the Rocks area looking down on the Nogues corner which leads onto the pit straight. It's €70 to sit up there, but you are sitting on rocks. There is normally a scouser with a megaphone up there who shouts out messages to the drivers and other well known faces. I wonder where he's been told he's not welcome any more, or perhaps he's been credit crunched.

The F1 team owners are having a meeting in the Renault motor home. They have papered over the windows, so photographers cannot see in. Max Mosley is not in the meeting, but is making himself available to the media, keeping the story moving forward. There is a story going round that Williams are planning to make an entry in the next couple of days. I'll check that out, it may be just a rehash of something they said a week or two back, rather than something that's come out since Friday.

The teams want to find a solution as much as everyone else, but they are frustrated that the discussion isn't about how they turn F1 from a £2 billion a year turnover industry into a £5 billion industry. Instead all the energy is being focussed on short term thinking and reducing the business.

There are some interesting visitors today. Google's founder Larry Page is coming as a guest of Vodafone. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are expected on the boat next door to the one Jake Humphrey is hosting the BBC show on.

What is amazing about Monaco is always the celebs who come here without VIP passes and just hang out. Actors, musicians, sportsmen. Is saw rugby's Jonathan Davies trying to blag his way into a Red Bull party here last year!

Race wise, the feeling is that this is Button's to lose. Raikkonen will have to get him off the start line to have any chance. Vettel is not in great shape with only 11 or 12 laps of fuel in the car and no clear track to drive on, down in 4th place.

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