[7] The third practice session was delayed and shortened by 10 minutes following an accident during the support Formula 3 race and finished with Vettel fastest followed by Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas.

[8] The first 18-minute qualifying session, Q1, was temporarily red-flagged with 4:34 remaining, when Sergio Pérez's car lost power on the inside of turn 3.

Verstappen and Pérez were eliminated in Q1, as were both Williams drivers, Robert Kubica and George Russell, and the Haas of Romain Grosjean.

In the second qualifying (Q2) session, the other Haas of Kevin Magnussen was eliminated, as were both Toro Rosso drivers, Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat.

Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi was the final driver eliminated in Q2, beaten by his teammate Kimi Räikkönen for the last spot for the third qualifying session (Q3) by 0.002 seconds.

Q3, only 12 minutes long, was red-flagged at 6:35 left when Räikkönen lost control of his car and spun out wide into the tyre barriers at turn 11.

After Räikkönen's car was cleared and the session resumed, two of the remaining nine drivers had still not set a time; Red Bull's Alexander Albon, and Stroll.

When the session restarted, no team wanted to be the first to send their driver out as Monza is a track where slipstreaming is a significant advantage.

[9] Stroll and Carlos Sainz Jr, the next two drivers back, slowed their traversal of Turn 1, allowing enough time for Hülkenberg to again enter the track ahead of them.

[11] Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff described Hülkenberg's chicane cut and the collective drivers' out-lap slowdowns as "junior class", and "not worthy of Formula 1.

All three of the drivers were reprimanded for driving too slowly, which they admitted they did do, and which the stewards concluded "played a significant role in the backing up of cars at a critical stage of the final out lap for Q3".

Max Verstappen, who started 19th on the grid, made contact with Sergio Pérez, damaging his front wing and requiring an early pit stop to replace it.

On lap 6, Sebastian Vettel, running a strong 4th, lost control and spun to a stop at turn 9, his car halfway onto the grass.

[21] By lap 19, the top three drivers (Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas, in order) were in a pit window to replace the aging soft tyres they started their races on.

Bottas was less than a second behind to take 2nd, and Hamilton, who made a late-race pit stop for soft tyres set the fastest lap of the race and took the last step of the podium.