In the World Constructors' Championship, Mercedes held an eight-point lead over Ferrari, with Red Bull Racing a further eighty-one points behind in third.

Prior to the national anthem, a minute's silence was observed on the grid before the race as a mark of respect to the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing earlier in the week.

[6] Thursday morning's first practice ended with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton setting the quickest lap with 1:13.425, approximately 0.2 seconds quicker than his championship rival Sebastian Vettel.

McLaren driver Jenson Button ended the session in twelfth, but incurred a 15-place grid penalty for changing the MGU-H and turbocharger, which would be applied after qualifying.

Vettel's closest rival, Lewis Hamilton, qualified in fourteenth; he struggled warming up the tyres and his final flying lap in Q2 was impeded by Stoffel Vandoorne who had crashed towards the end of the session.

His teammate Vettel stayed out longer and when he eventually pitted, he came out ahead of Räikkönen and went on to win his 3rd race of the season and extended his championship lead to 25 points over Hamilton, who finished in 7th in a recovery drive after his poor qualifying.

Daniel Ricciardo finished in 3rd, despite lightly hitting the wall late in the race, jumping both Bottas and Verstappen by staying out longer on the ultra-softs in a strategy akin to Sebastian Vettel.

Stoffel Vandoorne looked set to score McLaren's first points of the season before hitting the wall after being forced onto the breaking up asphalt by Sergio Pérez.

[12] After the race Sergio Pérez and Jenson Button had two penalty points (each) added to their Super Licences, both for causing a collision.