Lewis Hamilton has taken a philosophical outlook to his championship deficit to Nico Rosberg, saying the 2016 season is in the hands of God.
Hamilton is already 43 points behind Rosberg after an incident-filled start to the season, which included a collision with his Mercedes teammate last time out in Spain. The reigning world champion has not won a race since the U.S. Grand Prix in October, a victory which secured last year's championship.
But Hamilton appeared relaxed about his situation in Monte Carlo, saying some things ultimately are out of his control.
"I wake up every morning ready but there's a plan," Hamilton said when asked about the championship. "God has a plan and you just have to follow his path and hope it comes out the way you want it to but it doesn't always happen that way.
"I'm just grateful to be here, it's beautiful weather, there's only 22 of us get to race, I'm at the front of the 22 so I've been super blessed so just during this period of time just to really count my blessings"
Though Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo stole the headlines after the opening day of practice by beating Mercedes by six tenths, Hamilton finished ahead of Rosberg in both FP1 and FP2.
When asked what that meant for the rest of his weekend, which resumes on Saturday after the traditional Monaco rest day on Friday, Hamilton said: "I don't know what that's saying, you can take whatever you want from it, but for sure I felt good in the car this morning.
"I'm super blessed to be here and race in Formula One, I know what I can do and if the car stays together I should be able to do it."