Hyperbole is easy to come by at Monaco. Jewel in the crown, high octane/high maintenance, glamorous heart of the sport. Formula One's ultimate fashion accessory.

You can trot this stuff out until the Ferrari Modena's come home (to a penthouse apartment with stunning views over the harbour), but there is a truth in there. Monaco is a pretty little diadem, glittering in the early summer sunshine and sparkling off the teardrop Gucci sunglasses that are a must wear for every aspiring F1 groupie.

It is the sport's equivalent of offering the natives shiny beads in exchange for Manhattan, as the chiefs of major corporations are dazzled into parting with tens of millions by team sponsorship managers who reckon this the easiest sell of all. It is about sports cars, yachts and supermodels.

But it's got another tale to tale. Underneath all the head-turning poetry of excess, Monaco still has a simple story to tell, a Sunday afternoon subplot that often gets a little swamped by the soap opera.

This year, the on-track action is not just a piquant brew of glamour and grunt, it has the added spice of championship leadership.

Just six races into the season and already the battle for control of the championship has become tightly focused between Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard.

With just four points separating leader Schumacher and contender Coulthard, there is on the streets of Monte Carlo the whiff of a title fight about tomorrow's race as the combatants prepare to take to the most technically demanding circuit on the calendar and slug it out in a ring both have triumphed in before.

But while Coulthard took victory here last year, Schumacher has a massive statistical advantage. The German has taken the top step on the podium here four times and is bullish about his chances of a fifth victory, to join Graham Hill at joint second in the table of most wins at the principality, just one behind Ayrton Senna.

On Thursday, despite finishing free practice half-a-second off Mika Hakkinen's fastest time of the day, Schumacher insisted that times were meaningless and that he had been running in a race trim he was more than comfortable with.

More importantly, though, Schumacher has taken pole position here three times, while his McLaren opponent has never scored pole and has been on the front row only once, in 1998.

Because of Monaco's dearth of overtaking opportunities, qualifying is a crucial factor, with the grid formation often being mirrored in the race result.

Coulthard's form so-far this weekend has suggested little. His shunt on Thursday ruled him out of most the afternoon practice, dropping him to sixth on the timesheet. He was fast quick off the mark in the morning, however, but it is clear that the Scot will have to up his game in this morning's practice sessions if he is to take the fight to a confident looking Schumacher.

Further down on the bill, Jordan have the look of a team on the brink of a good result. Heinz Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli were in sparkling form on Thursday and seemed to have the measure of Monaco's demands from the off.

Both are capable of stunning performances here as they have proved in the past, with both excelling in the crucial qualifying hour. Frentzen took pole here in 1997 while driving for Williams, and Trulli scored a memorable front row start last year and could have gone on to score a significant result had not the EJ10's fragile gearbox failed just shy of half distance.

While the lesser bouts, the Jordans and Williams, the BARs and Saubers, will undoubtedly provide some intriguing rounds, it is the heavyweight battles of Ferrari and McLaren, of Schumacher and Coulthard that will earn the headlines.

Coulthard's number one contender status was boosted by his Austrian win and the fear displayed in Ferrari's late imposition of team orders. If the under-rated Scot can score significant points in qualifying's first round, then going the distance may just be possible.