For the 3rd consecutive race at the , Mercedes were unable to match the outright pace of the Ferrari SF71H, where Sebastian Vettel took pole position ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. During the race, all drivers got off the line from the standing start without incident. Further contact from Kimi Räikkönen, Esteban Ocon, Fernando Alonso, Sergey Sirotkin, Sergio Pérez and Kevin Magnussen on lap 1 caused a safety car period. On lap 23, Lewis Hamilton had to pit early due to flat spotting his tyres after suffering a huge lock-up, whilst Sebastian Vettel stayed out until lap 31 for his mandatory pit-stop on soft tyres, while Valtteri Bottas stayed out for a long stint on supersoft tyres. A critical turning point for the race happened on lap 40, where both Red Bull cars collided at turn 1 after their individual pit-stop. Valtteri Bottas took full advantage of the 2nd safety car period by doing his mandatory pit-stop, while Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton also pitted for new tyres.
