Love it or hate it, Monaco almost always produces entertaining races with memorable moments. This year’s edition promises to be the most entertaining one in years, thanks to Ferrari closing the gap to the dominant, #blessed Mercedes team. With Mercedes building a limousine for the 2017 season, this seemingly opens the door for Ferrari to take an easy win in the principality, but we never know what Toto Wolff and the boys have up their sleeve.

So, to help you get psyched for the most famous GP of the year, read on and learn about all the cool stuff that’s gone on in the little town/country over the years.

Michael’s Surprise Pole (2012)

You wouldn’t blame anybody for saying that Michael Schumacher’s return to the sport between 2010 and 2012 was less than spectacular. Michael’s relative lack of success during his comeback stood in stark contrast to his “first” career in F1 – a career that set records that many expect will never be broken. Throughout his last three seasons in F1, he was thoroughly beaten by the eventual 2016 World Champion Nico Rosberg, and only managed to finish on the podium once – something his teammate managed to do no less than 5 times over the same period.

However, Michael silenced his critics in the most stylish way possible when he posted the fastest time in qualifying at the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix – a 1:14.301 which just edged out Mark Webber – who set his time in the far superior Red Bull RB8. Sadly, due to an avoidable incident caused by Schumacher in the previous race in Spain, Michael was given a 5 place grid penalty, which dropped the Red Baron to 6th on the grid at Monaco. The 7 time World Champion would later retire from the race due to a fuel pressure issue.  Watch his lap here.

Bandini’s final race (1967)

Chasing Denny Hulme for the lead in the 1967 edition, Italy’s Lorenzo Bandini lost control of his Ferrari coming up to the harbour chicane. While in an erratic skid, he made contact with a light pole, which tipped the car over. The fuel tank unfortunately ruptured – which resulted in the Cherry red Ferrari becoming even easier to spot when the fuel made contact with the hot exhaust. Bandini was removed from the wreckage relatively quickly, but the damage was done – Bandini died shortly after the crash.

The grisly crash can be viewed here.  Thankfully, his memory lives on in the form of the Lorenzo Bandini Trophy, introduced in 1992, which is awarded on a yearly basis usually to a promising young F1 driver. Past winners include drivers like Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Trulli stunning (2004)

Jarno Trulli was never known for his race pace – he’d usually qualify close to the front of the field due to his superior pace in qualifying, but always seemed to fall down the order once the race began. His run of poor luck ended in Monaco 2004, where he took Pole Position at the most difficult circuit on the calendar when it comes to overtaking. Trulli would lead almost every lap of the race, with chaos ensuing behind the Renault driver…

Michael Schumacher would crash into Montoya in the tunnel behind the safety car, wrecking his 100% win streak for 2004. He was looking like he had the pace to emerge ahead of Trulli after the pit stops.

Alonso would make friends with the wall after attempting to lap Ralf Schumacher’s Williams BMW through the tunnel. He would find himself on the dirty part of the track while passing the German, and lost it while exiting the tunnel. He promptly made his feelings regarding the incident abundantly clear to Ralf by giving him the middle finger as he passed.

Sato’s Honda couldn’t contain its excitement with all that was going on in the early laps, and ironically started billowing smoke at the famous Tabac corner – the site of an old tobacconist – which ended his race as well as Fisichella’s and Coulthard’s. Thankfully, the Honda decided to kick its smoking habit soon after, but the damage was done.

Senna shows Mansell who’s boss (1992)

Nigel Mansell had the luxury of having a virtually unbeatable car in the form of the Williams-Renault FW14B in 1992, which took him to his one and only world championship title. However, he would be denied his sole Monaco win by Senna – who would eventually rack up 6 (!) wins in the principality.

Mansell had led the race ahead of Senna up until lap 70, when he was forced to make an extra pit stop thanks to a loose wheel nut. He emerged from the pits in second place, a handful of seconds behind Senna. Within 3 laps Mansell was climbing all over the back of the vastly inferior McLaren – but was unable to find a way past the Brazilian triple world champion for the remainder of the race. What makes Senna’s achievement all the more amazing is that he won the race having completed the full distance on one set of tyres. Way to save money, I guess!

Panis picks up the pieces (1996)

I’ll admit – this article is probably part 1 of at least 10. There are almost too many classic moments that have been produced by this circuit. Arguably the most famous Grand Prix to take place in Monaco in modern times would be the 1996 race, where all kinds of drama unfolded.

Firstly, Schumacher pulled out an incredible lap in qualifying to put his (rather rubbish) Ferrari on Pole Position. Schumacher was 2 tenths down on Hill’s lap time at the end of the second sector, but clawed back 7 TENTHS in the final sector alone to grab Pole by half a second. Check it out here.

Schumacher’s brilliance in qualifying would not carry over into Sunday, unfortunately. Having done the majority of the hard work on Saturday to put the car in front (at the circuit where track position is most important), Schumi binned the Ferrari in the wall on the first lap, having slid out of control just after the hairpin. Schumi was just one of six drivers who were out of the race by the end of the first lap.

Damon Hill would have seen Schumacher’s wrecked Ferrari and flashed a Daniel Ricciardo-esque smile as he shot past into the lead. By lap 30, only 11 cars were left in the race due to the tricky, damp conditions combined with the general attrition associated with the circuit.

Sadly for Damon, he would join the majority of the other drivers as a spectator on lap 40 after his engine decided it was taking a half-day.

After about 298 more incidents following Damon’s retirement (as well as Alesi’s retirement from the lead), Frenchman Olivier Panis found himself in a french car leading a race that was pretty close to being French, too. He would go on to take his first and only win in front of just 2 other finishers – Herbert and Coulthard – in one of the weirdest Formula 1 races of all time.