The teams, also known as constructors, were Red Bull Racing, McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault, Williams, Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso, Lotus, HRT and Virgin.

Virgin Racing's CEO Andy Webb, who had aims to challenge for a podium position at the inaugural Russian Grand Prix, expressed that ending the partnership would mean "that the team will take greater control of its own destiny".

[8] Wirth Research would continue to develop the car until the end of the 2011 season, while Virgin Racing would up their own technical department under the control of former Renault Director of Engineering Pat Symonds.

[10][11] Ferrari and Mercedes revised their rear suspension layouts,[9] while Red Bull brought a new front wing optimised for lower downforce.

Vettel caused the session to be suspended after crashing into the circuit's "Wall of Champions" on the last corner, heavily damaging his car.

[14] After the morning session Sergio Pérez, who had suffered from concussion after a crash at the previous race, withdrew from the Grand Prix.

[15] Alonso was fastest in the second session, ahead of Vettel, Massa and Hamilton – although the McLaren driver received a puncture midway through practice.

[19] A crash by de la Rosa in the final minute brought out a red flag, and the session was prematurely ended due to the limited time remaining.

[13] Vettel achieved his sixth pole position of the season, and his first at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, with a time of 1 minute and 13.014 seconds.

[20] He was joined on the front row of the grid by Alonso, with teammate Massa in third, giving Ferrari their best qualifying performance of the season.

[20] Hamilton and Button qualified in fifth and seventh respectively and McLaren blamed the slow pace on too high levels of downforce on the high-speed circuit.

Jaime Alguersuari qualifying in 18th complained of insufficient grip and brake balance,[21] and at the back of the grid were the Lotus, HRT and Virgin drivers.

However the stewards allowed him to race, having considered he was using a new chassis after an accident in Friday practice, where he had set faster lap times.

[3] Alguersuari would start the race from the pitlane, as he modified his Toro Rosso's set-up to optimise the car for the wet conditions.

[25] The race began behind the safety car, with no formation lap, and despite the slow speed drivers struggled for grip on the wet surface.

[30] Vettel retained first place withstanding Alonso's attempts to pass, while behind Hamilton and Webber collided at the first corner – dropping the drivers to seventh and fourteenth respectively.

[27] At the end of the first racing lap, di Resta had moved up to eighth position, followed by Heidfeld and Kobayashi, who made three places off the grid.

[3] Barrichello, who switched for intermediates as the safety car came in, began setting times at the same pace as the leaders, and gained 15th position as the drivers in front changed tyres.

[27] On lap 19, a rain storm arrived at the circuit, forcing the drivers on intermediate tyres to switch back to full wets.

[3] The safety car was brought out on lap 20 due to the intensity of the rain,[27] and Vettel, Webber, Massa and Buemi, who had not changed tyres, went to the pitlane for fresh full wets.

[34] Schumacher led several cars into the pitlane to change to intermediate tyres,[34] while Button, Heidfeld and di Resta were among those who pitted the next lap.

[3][35] When the race resumed three laps later, Vettel, Kobayashi and Massa retained their positions, as Heidfeld, di Resta, Webber and Schumacher fought for fourth place.

[34] Di Resta damaged his front wing attempting to overtake Heidfeld; the subsequent pit-stop and drive-through penalty dropped him down to last.

[25] Following the pitstops and safety car deployment, Petrov had gained sixth place while Barrichello, Alguersuari, Rosberg and Maldonado were in the remaining point scoring positions.

[25] Alguersuari, Barrichello and Buemi filled the final point scoring positions, and Rosberg's car had lost the front wing, dropping him to eleventh.

[36] De la Rosa was twelfth, and Liuzzi, d'Ambrosio, Glock, Trulli and Karthikeyan were the final classified drivers.

[42] Webber said he was happy to finish third after his incident at the beginning of the race, putting his recovery from fourteenth place down to correct tyre choices.

"[48] However, he recognised that FIA race director Charlie Whiting had to consider the driver's visibility, and inexperience using the Pirelli wet-weather tyres led to caution.

[48] Jarno Trulli however agreed with the FIA's decisions, in particular the length of the red flag delay: "It was right to wait that long; track conditions had to improve in order to make the cars drivable again.

[29] With a total time of four hours, four minutes and 39 seconds (including the two-hour suspension), the race was the longest in Formula One history.