During the first qualifying session, Carlos Sainz, driving for Toro Rosso, experienced power loss to his car, leaving him in 16th position. Several other drivers were affected by flags waved for Sainz's stoppage, resulting in early exits from the session.[6]
During Q2, McLaren driver, Fernando Alonso, was left in 15th position after a broken power unit prevented him from setting a time. Front-end problems stopped Williams driver, Lance Stroll, from leaving the garage until late in the session, where he was eventually pushed down into 12th position.[6]
During the final qualifying session, Hamilton broke his previous pole time while attempting to receive his 55th pole position. However, Valtteri Bottas managed to improve on his teammate's time, winning his maiden pole position by two-hundredths of a second.[6]
At the start, Bottas led away with Vettel in hot pursuit after he beat Hamilton into 2nd off the line, Vettel pitted early as did Verstappen, however Verstappen had a brake failure soon after and had to retire from the race. A collision between Stroll and Sainz occurred and with Stroll's car stuck on the track the safety car was deployed to clear it away. Hamilton then pitted but was penalised 5 seconds for holding up Ricciardo into the pits, he served his penalty at his second stop costing him a chance of winning the race. Alonso's frustration boiled over in a radio message saying he has never had so little power in his life before later retiring with engine problems. Vettel won from Hamilton who was let through into 2nd by Bottas with 10 laps to go.[8]
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