Valtteri Bottas might have fought hard for his pole position, but it lasted only a moment as he was swamped by Sebastian Vettel off the line and dropped back to second place. Those positions remained like that for the rest of the afternoon, with the Mercedes unable to challenge. Hamilton, however, showed off the pace the car really has, by flying through the field from a pit lane start to a fourth place finish.

Meanwhile, a first lap crash dropped Ocon, Vandoorne and Magnussen out of the race early on, and they were joined by Brendon Hartley in the DNF club when the Toro Rosso retired on lap 40.