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Williams is expected to confirm soon that it will switch from Renault to Mercedes power for the start of the turbo era in 2014.

Niki Lauda has been telling people that the deal is done and the Austrian and other senior personnel were even spotted at the Williams motorhome today.

The arrangement is a no-brainer given that Mercedes motor sport boss Toto Wolff is also a shareholder in Williams.

It would mean that Mercedes will supply the works team, McLaren, Force India and Williams in 2014, before McLaren moves to Honda.

Speaking this afternoon Wolff would not admit that a deal has been done: “It’s clear that we are losing an engine customer in 2015, and for Mercedes it’s important to have a regular business case. So it is important to have at least three customers from 2015 onwards. This is why we are having certain discussions with teams, and Williams is one of them.”

Nico Rosberg made it three poles in a row after backing up the promise that Mercedes showed in practice in Monaco – despite early rain making life difficult for everyone in qualifying.

Rosberg will start from pole exactly 30 years after his father Keke won for Williams.

“It could have been a lot easier out there today,” said Rosberg. “The conditions were all over the place and as soon as it started drizzling again the lap times became a lot slower, even on the Inters. So it was really difficult and changing so much.

“So you really have to be out there at the right time with the right tyres, especially in Q2, changing over to slicks – but I’m really happy. Everything went to plan and the last lap was OK. It’s great to be on pole again, especially in Monaco. If at any track then it’s this track where it makes a difference.”

Rosberg had a tricky time in the wet Q1 session, twice taking to the Mirabeau escape road and getting away with it.

“I did exactly the same thing twice. I was just surprised by the lack of grip going into there and then I didn’t really want to accept the next time around that I had to take so much speed out, and so I went straight again. But anyway, it was the beginning of the session, it was drying out so I knew that there was plenty of time to set a time later on. But of course those moments are not great. I prefer staying on track.”

Regarding his hopes for Sunday Nico said: “In Barcelona we were still struggling a lot in the race. I was 70 seconds behind at the end of the race from the race winner. We’re improving, it’s difficult to understand the tyres and get the most out of it. We’re improving step by step – but there’s still a lot of question marks remaining.

“And so here, yeah, I’m sure we’ve made a step forward but it’s still going to be difficult for us tomorrow, definitely. It’s still our weakness but we’ll make the best of it and, who knows? You can always have a few surprises.”

Tony Fernandes is on the verge of announcing that Caterham will continue with Renault power into the turbo era.

While it is no great surprise an official confirmation will help to clarify the 2014 engine picture. Also expected soon is news on Toro Rosso going to Renault, and Williams joining forces with Mercedes.

“We’ve had great meetings today with Renault,” Fernandes told this writer. “I think in the not-too-distant future we will be announcing lots of things with Renault, so it’s looking good.”

Asked whether he had actually signed the deal he said: “Hopefully next week.”

Meanwhile Caterham enjoyed its best day of the season so far as Giedo van der Garde qualified 15th in Monaco.

“I’m really pleased. It’s been a long time coming! We knew we had good race pace but we thought in qualy we weren’t there. But I feel things are finally beginning to come together. So good for the team, a good morale boost.”

Massa’s car was badly damaged in the shunt. Photo: AC

Felipe Massa will start the Monaco GP from the back of the grid after he was not able to take part in qualifying.

Massa had a big accident at Ste Devote in the morning’s FP3 session, and while the team nearly finished the repair job in the end the clock ran out, and Massa was not able to go out in Q1.

The Brazilian locked his front wheels when he braked a little later than usual and turned sharp left into the barrier on the approach to Ste Devote. He then ran head-on into the barrier at the exit of the corner.

“I’m fine, just some stiff muscles here [right shoulder] and around the neck,” said Massa. “When I braked I touched a bump and both wheels went a bit up. When I braked I locked both front wheels. When you lock the front wheels the car doesn’t move [steer], so I hit the guardrail on the left.

“It’s the worst place to have this kind of problem. I saw that the car was pretty damaged, the suspension and everything around the car was pretty damaged, so I knew it wouldn’t be easy to go out. We tried everything we could. Starting last here is not easy.”

Regarding his hopes for the race he said: “I don’t know, I think we have to try everything different, and see if it works. We have the whole evening and tomorrow morning to make a big analysis and try to understand what we will do.”

Pirelli motor sport boss Paul Hembery has made clear his company’s frustration at the lack of an agreement to continue as F1’s sole tyre supplier in 2014 after its initial three-year deal runs out at the end of this season.

Pirelli has been under pressure from all sides regarding its role in how races unfold in 2013, and the uncertainty over the future has created extra pressure.

The added complication for Pirelli is that the turbo cars will have very different requirements, and until a deal is agreed the company is not in a position to push ahead with R&D.

“Apparently on the first of September we’re supposed to tell them everything that they need to know for the tyres for next season,” said Hembery today.

“We’re now mid-May, so you can imagine how ludicrous that is when we haven’t even got contracts in place. Maybe we won’t be here, anyway.”

Asked whether the chance of the ‘maybe’ had grown since the last race in Spain he said: “Well two weeks have passed, so it’s grown. At a certain point somebody’s got to make a decision.”

Hembery made it clear that without any testing with the new turbo cars it won’t be easy to get the 2014 tyres right.

“I won’t say it will be guesswork. You can get some indications that the power delivery will be very different, the top speed will be different, the aero loads will be dramatically different. There’s a big question on the correct tyre sizes for next year, you’ll have less aero downforce, so maybe you need wider tyres to create grip. There’s a risk of having excessive wheelspin.

“So there’s a lot of parameters there that would create quite a lot of concern, so you’d have to take from my point of a view a very conservative approach, so we’ll be back to no pit stops or one if you need to, and talk about other things.

“The changes are so dramatic, if you go round the teams and ask the teams how they perceive the cars next year you’ll have 11 different answers.”

Mercedes set the pace on the first day in Monaco. Photo: AC

Nico Rosberg was in a cautious mood despite topping both sessions in Monaco today.

The German admitted that Mercedes still has to fully address the tyre management issues that have seen the team waste pole at the last three races.

“Generally I’m pleased with the day,” he said. “We’re going in the right direction, I felt comfortable in the car. The thing is that of course first of all we don’t know how much fuel the other people had for one lap. We know that we’re more or less in the hunt for a good result in qualifying, but we don’t know what other people are running.

“And the other thing is our long run pace, it’s still a concern, this tyre management. We’re starting to understand it a bit better, but there are still some issues that we haven’t fully understood. So that’s still going to be a problem. The rears were going off, the usual as we’ve had in the last couple of races, and that’s what we need to focus on, and that’s going to be the main difficulty for the race. The stints as I say are going to be very long, with few pit stops.”

Rosberg said that the lack of overtaking opportunities might not be enough to help Mercedes stay at the front.

“It’s going to be really difficult, because you need the race pace, With the different strategies that you can do here, it’s really important to have the race pace. It won’t be enough to be somewhere at the front in qualifying, and that’s still our difficulty. We need to be cautiously optimistic.

“Of course this track and the nature of it is going to be a little bit of an advantage for us, but in Barcelona we were 70 seconds away in the race. That is one helluva big chunk, it’s going to be difficult to make that up in two weeks.

Fernando Alonso said today that Mercedes is favourite to win in Monaco – but adds that he’ll accept that as long as he can finish ahead of his main title rivals.

“The feeling is good, the team is confident, as we saw we had a competitive package, getting both our cars onto the podium in Barcelona,” said Alonso . “However, Monaco is a unique track where you need a special set-up and confidence in your driving.

“We have had two podiums here in the last couple of years, so we should be competitive again and I hope to get a good result. We can expect Mercedes, who have been on pole for the last three races, to be very strong again and remember they were on pole position here last year with Michael [Schumacher], although he lost that place with a penalty.

“We know how difficult it is to overtake here, so maybe that makes them favourite here. But we must not forget our main target which is the championship, and in that battle, Vettel and Raikkonen are ahead of us, so if Mercedes has to win one race, maybe this is the one and we must just concentrate on finishing ahead of the others.”

Having said that he’d accept being beaten by Mercedes he added that Monaco does have a special meaning.

“Of course we want to win the championship, but Monaco is a special race, let’s say the most important race of the championship. Because everyone in the world has heard something about Monaco Grand Prix, Indy 500 and Le Mans, the three races that everyone knows about even if they are not motorsport fans.

“Here we are in Monte Carlo and it’s been many years since Ferrari has managed to win here, and for me personally I could be the first man to win for three different teams and for sure that is a huge motivation to do it.”

Regarding what he needed to win, he said: “A good lap on Saturday finding a little something more than on the other laps, then a good start, while race pace and tyre degradation don’t count for much.

“You also want a clean strategy, which works well and hope that the Safety Car does not come out at the wrong time. Here the area where we have to up our performance more than at other races is qualifying, historically the point on which we have to work the most.”

Meanwhile Alonso has reserved judgement on the planned Pirelli changes.

“I have not formed an opinion on what effect that might have, because we are still waiting to find out what will be the final changes to the tyres. When we know exactly what their characteristics will be and probably we must wait until we have raced on them first, then we will be able to form an idea. From the Ferrari side, we are not taking too much notice of the tyres, as we have an important race to deal with this weekend and we know that the tyres are the same for everyone.”

Mark Webber says that Red Bull can’t rely on Mercedes having tyre issues in the Monaco GP – and thus his team aims to outqualify the silver cars and control the race from the front, as it has done at the same venue in recent years.

“They certainly have some Saturday form, which is not a bad card to play at this venue,” said Webber of Mercedes. “Again let’s see how the tyres pan out on Sunday. If they’re quite calm and they still have their qualy pace, then it could be quite nice for them. If they don’t, then there’s options to make it more difficult for them.

“Our goal is still to outqualify them of course, shoot for pole, and be in a position where we’re in charge, and not trying to deal with the in the race.

“It’s like serving in tennis, you’re in control of what’s going on to a larger degree, like I was last year. It was a one-stop last year, and we had to get to that target lap, and we got to that target lap. We pitted, we came back out, and then we nursed the tyres to the end of the race. I saved the tyres last year for 95% of the race last year and still won the race. That was the rules last year, but I doubt it will be the rules this year.”

Monaco specialist Webber made it clear that he has mixed feelings about the event as a whole.

“I think it’s a very dramatic back drop, I love the ocean, I love the cliff faces, just to have a race track here is quite exceptional. But for me in terms of all the small dogs in the handbags and that sort of stuff, it’s not really my thing…”

Sebastian Vettel says that it’s impossible to know what role tyres will play in Monaco this weekend until the teams have done some proper running.

The consensus is that Mercedes will be quick in qualifying once again, but how that might pan out in the race is hard to predict.

“People make out that Mercedes is the favourite,” said Vettel. “Obviously they had a very impressive speed in the last couple of races, and as we know in Monaco it’s very important to qualify in the front.

“It’s a bit difficult and unknown at this stage how important the tyres will be, especially how long they last. If they last well then they won’t be very important. If people are running into trouble then it could be that pole is not everything.

“But for sure it’s not a secret, around here you need to have clear laps and no traffic because overtaking is quite difficult. I still think that everyone is shooting for pole, and as I said in the last couple of races Mercedes was very strong. If we get into the groove nicely, and fine the rhythm, which I think is very important around here, then we should have a good chance. How good our chances are right now I can’t say. I think we need to get into the car tomorrow and get a first view.”

Vettel, who won at Monaco in 2011, made it clear that it’s a special event for him.

“It’s a very emotional Grand Prix, history is very popular round here. Just looking around I think it’s spectacular. Every year you come back and it’s one of the greatest Grands Prix we have, in terms of racing and overtaking it’s probably the worst place you can think of.

“Still it’s a fantastic Grand Prix, it’s exciting to race through the city, the circuit is very technical, the driver here I think is more important than in other places, that’s why as I said it’s important to get into the rhythm, be confident with your car. To win here for sure does taste sweeter than anywhere else.”

Kimi Raikkonen has again refused to divulge any details of his possible future plans, insisting that he doesn’t know what he will do in 2014.

Raikkonen, who has no commitment to Lotus beyond this season, has been linked with Mark Webber’s seat at Red Bull.

“I’m sure there are some options, it’s no secret,” he said in Monaco today. “There are also options that I don’t drive anything. Right now I have no [contractual] options, I don’t have a contract, nothing. When I have and when I know what will happen I will tell, and it’s as simple as that. I’m sure it’s not going to be the next race or the race after, so I’m sure it will take time, whatever the decision will be.”

Raikkonen conceded that he is high on people’s wish lists as other star names are under long term deals.

“For sure there are not many top, top drivers that don’t have a contract, so obviously I’m probably the only one of those. There are some contracts that will end next year… Like I said I don’t have a contract. This is normal, even when you have a contract the rumours will still go on. It’s a very normal situation in F1, and it’s not me or my management that creates the stories. Obviously it comes from another side of the table.

“I’m not in a hurry. If I would be desperate for a contract I would already try to sign it [with Lotus] last year. Like I said the year before I try to do my work well and if I do it well I am sure will get the contract if I want. I’m sure if we want to make a contract in the end together it will be very easy, and not painful way of doing it. It just involves certain details to get it right, and that’s it. I don’t really think that we have to sit down every day and discuss it because it’s not going to change, the decision has to come from me, and I have not made any decisions.”

Pressed further about staying at Lotus, he added: “Like I said still a lot of things have to happen, and a lot of things that can go that way or this way. It can also go on the other side of the life something happens, and you don’t want to be in racing or you cannot be, there’s a lot of things that will decide it for you. And then you decide OK this is it, or you choose something else.”