Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg entered the round as the defending race winner and championship leader, with a 24-point advantage over his teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Mercedes led rivals Ferrari by 81 points in the Constructors' standings at the start of the round, extending their lead to 103 after Sebastian Vettel retired.

Max Verstappen was critical of the changes, calling the new kerbs "dangerous" after damaging his car twice in free practice after having run over them.

[8] Others joined into the criticism, with Mercedes urging the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the sport's governing body, to make changes to the kerbs.

Daniel Ricciardo posted the fifth-fastest time, but was lucky to escape a situation in which Marcus Ericsson got sideways while trying to get into the pitlane entry at turn 8.

Behind Rosberg and Hamilton, Nico Hülkenberg set the third-fastest time, ahead of Vettel, who spun out into the gravel trap in turn 2 late in the session.

[15] In the third session on Saturday, Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time, at 1:07.098, a little over a tenth of a second ahead of his teammate Räikkönen.

Fernando Alonso, who lost parts of his bodywork when running over the kerbs late in the session, was tenth fastest, 1.2 seconds behind Vettel.

[12] Following his crash in free practice, Rosberg's car needed to be repaired and he did not get out on track in the first part of qualifying (Q1) until nine minutes before the end of the session.

Just as in free practice, suspension failures occurred: First it was Sergio Pérez who nursed his car back to the pit lane.

Realizing this, Mercedes tried to counter the move and sent their cars back out on supersoft tyres, but were unable to improve on their times due to rain starting to fall.

In 12th place, Wehrlein equalled Manor's highest ever qualifying result, being between the two Haas drivers Esteban Gutiérrez and Romain Grosjean on the grid.

[24] Nico Rosberg made his pit stop shortly thereafter, putting on the soft compound tyre, while Hamilton stayed out.

Räikkönen briefly led the race but followed suit one lap later and made a pit stop, only to come out behind both Red Bull drivers.

More trouble was ahead for Ferrari, as Vettel, who was in the lead at that point, retired on lap 27, when he crashed into the barriers after his rear right tyre had exploded.

[24] The safety car came back in on lap 32, with Rosberg leading the field at the flying restart, quickly pulling out a two-second advantage over Hamilton.

After keeping the gap at around two seconds for a number of laps, a mistake by Rosberg saw Hamilton close back up to him, allowing him to use the drag reduction system to attempt an overtake manoeuvre.

[27] In the podium interview, conducted by Spanish TV presenter Noemí de Miguel, he shrugged off the reaction, saying: "That's not my problem, it's theirs.

Wolff said that should a similar situation arise in the future, the team would contemplate settling the order of the cars by telling them not to race each other, though he admitted that such a decision would be "unpopular".

He made his feelings about possible team orders clear by saying: "[The thought] makes we want to puke myself but if racing is not possible without contact that is a consequence.

"[31] One day after the race, it was reported that the team even contemplated using measures as far as fines and temporary suspensions for their drivers if another accident between the two should occur.

[32] Concerning Sebastian Vettel's tyre failure, supplier Pirelli announced that the blowup was not caused by a wrong strategy from Ferrari, but rather by debris on track.

[35][36] As a result of the race, Nico Rosberg retained his lead in the Drivers' Championship, although Hamilton closed the gap to eleven points.