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 FIA to draft a new calendar.

[4] Mercedes trialed a reliability upgrade by testing new gearbox components designed to solve the electrical problems at the first race of the season.

[9] Jack Aitken and Robert Kubica drove in the first practice session for Williams and Alfa Romeo Racing respectively.

[12] The first practice session ended with Sergio Pérez fastest for Racing Point ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Mercedes's Valtteri Bottas.

[13] Lando Norris was given a three-place grid penalty after overtaking another car under yellow flag conditions,[14] which came after Nicholas Latifi was forced to pull over to the side of the track with gearbox issues.

[18] Daniel Ricciardo's session ended early when his Renault R.S.20 left the track at turn nine and crashed heavily into the barriers at the exit of the corner, bringing out the red flags.

[20] Lando Norris cited chest and back pain as the reason for doing fewer laps in practice than teammate Carlos Sainz Jr., however his condition had improved by the following morning.

The only major incident of the session came towards the end, when Antonio Giovinazzi lost control of his Alfa Romeo after turn seven; his car slid onto the grass and collided gently with a barrier, scattering some debris.

Giovinazzi was eliminated from Q1 along with Kimi Räikkönen, Sergio Pérez, Nicholas Latifi and Romain Grosjean, who had not set a lap due to an issue with his energy recovery system.

In the end, Hamilton took pole with a lap time of 1:19:273, over 1.2 seconds faster than his nearest rival, Verstappen, who spun on his final attempt.

[26] Hamilton's teammate Bottas qualified in fourth place, followed by Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris, Alexander Albon, Pierre Gasly, Daniel Ricciardo, and Sebastian Vettel.

Whilst the normal punishment in such cases is disqualification from the Grand Prix weekend, Grosjean avoided this as the team blamed an energy recovery system (ERS) water pump problem that had to be repaired in order to allow him to participate.

[29] The race was run in dry conditions, in contrast to the entirely wet qualifying meaning all 20 drivers had a free choice of starting tyres as is permitted by the Sporting Regulations.

At the end of lap four, Ferrari determined that the damage to Leclerc's car was too great to continue and he entered the pits to retire from the race.

After all drivers had made their first stops, the order was Hamilton, Verstappen, Bottas, Albon, Ricciardo, Stroll, Pérez, Sainz, Norris and Pierre Gasly.

Stroll, who had been close behind Ricciardo for almost 30 laps, made an overtake attempt for sixth place at turn three, running deep and causing both drivers to take to the runoff area.

Hamilton took the chequered flag to claim his first victory of the season and the 85th of his career, followed by Bottas and Verstappen to complete the podium, with Albon and Norris behind.

Pérez, Stroll and Ricciardo crossed the finish line three-wide, separated by just over 0.2 seconds, but maintained those respective positions.

Vettel stated he was "very surprised" that Leclerc attempted the overtake, noting that the team had intended to assess the performance of the updates brought to the SF1000 for the race.