It was also the first race not to be won by a driver from Red Bull, Mercedes, or Ferrari since the 2013 Australian Grand Prix.

Several Grands Prix were cancelled or postponed after the planned opening round in Australia was called off two days before the race was due to take place; prompting the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile to draft a new calendar.

[8] Prior to the race, the governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, issued a technical directive banning qualifying-specific engine modes from the Italian Grand Prix onwards.

[10] The second practice session ran without major incidents and concluded with Hamilton fastest, followed by Bottas and Lando Norris of McLaren.

The session was briefly red flagged after Daniel Ricciardo stopped his Renault R.S.20 due to a mechanical failure.

[15] Lewis Hamilton successfully retained the lead position on the start, while his teammate Valtteri Bottas gradually dropped to sixth place over the first two laps while reporting problems with his car.

On lap 19, Kevin Magnussen's Haas suffered a power unit failure and his car stranded to the side of the pit lane entrance.

The safety car was deployed shortly afterwards and the pit lane was closed to allow marshals to safely remove the stranded Haas from the track.

Charles Leclerc crashed heavily after the restart in the Parabolica corner as the car lost its rear end, entered the gravel trap and collided with the barrier, significantly damaging the tyre barriers and his car in the process.

[19] The safety car was deployed initially, but the red flags were brought out shortly afterwards to suspend the race to allow repairs to be made to the tyre barriers.

[20] The result marked the first time that Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull all failed to score a podium finish since the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix.