[5] Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel entered the round with a nine-point lead over Lewis Hamilton in the World Drivers' Championship.

[6] Charles Leclerc finished 6th and became the first Monégasque driver to score a point since Louis Chiron in the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix.

[7] Brendon Hartley finished 10th and became the first driver from New Zealand to score a point since Chris Amon in the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix.

[2] The Pirelli tyre compounds selected for the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix were, in order of most hard to least, the soft (yellow), super-soft (red), and ultra-soft (purple).

In the last minute of Q3 shootout, Kimi Räikkönen almost claimed pole position but he made a mistake on the exit of the final corner, instead settling for P6.

A minor racing incident which led to contact between Kimi Räikkönen and Esteban Ocon occurred as both navigated turn 2.

[15][16] In the chaos, Force India's Sergio Pérez struck the back of Räikkönen's car, causing him to make a pit stop.

[19] 4th place Red Bull driver Max Verstappen reported issues with his KERS battery after the restart, allowing the top three runners to pull away while a long queue of cars built behind him.

Sainz pitted from 4th with worn ultrasoft tyres, and the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen raced 4th and 5th for several laps, occasionally exchanging positions.

[20] The tempo of the race was completely changed on lap 40, when Red Bull teammates Verstappen and Ricciardo (then in 4th and 5th place, respectively), made major contact.

[19][23] The collision was sufficient to retire both drivers, leave them both disabled on track, and force the race's second safety car.

"[27] Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was reported to have been very angry after the lap 40 crash that forced the retirement of both his drivers, and called the contact "unacceptable".

[28] Verstappen and Ricciardo's crash drew comparisons to the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix,[28] where then-teammates Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel made contact with each other.