[3][4][5] Pundits Lawrence Barretto, Scott Mitchell, Mark Hughes and Edd Straw made Red Bull favourites for the first race of the year due to a stronger performance than Mercedes during testing.

In the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Hamilton achieved his 99th pole position, ahead of Sergio Pérez and Verstappen.

However, Hamilton made a late pit stop to set a fastest lap and finished the race seventh, while Bottas retired when the team was unable to remove a wheel during a routine pitstop.

In doing so, Hamilton lost the lead to Verstappen due to the Red Bull driver's undercut performed with his newer tyres.

With five laps remaining, Verstappen took the lead and went onto win the race just 3 seconds ahead of Hamilton, while Bottas finished 4th after being passed by Perez.

The Styrian and Austrian Grand Prix were both dominated by Red Bull as Verstappen took pole position in both races.

At the British Grand Prix, Mercedes introduced a huge upgrade package to increase the car's competitiveness.

Both repeatedly swapped positions until a first-lap collision at Copse corner, where Hamilton's car experienced understeer and collided with Verstappen, who hit the wall going sideways across the gravel.

Hamilton, whose car suffered minor damage, slowed down, allowing Charles Leclerc to take the lead of the race.

Hamilton remained at second position after the restart, pitted and served his time penalty to rejoin fourth.

Hamilton immediately overtook Norris and Bottas to claim back second position, taking the lead of the race on lap 50, as Leclerc struggled with an engine issue within his car.

Hamilton qualified on pole for the Hungarian Grand Prix, which was the second Mercedes front row lockout of the season.

Hamilton made his first pit stop by the end of lap 4, allowing Esteban Ocon to take the lead.

After two formation laps behind the safety car, the race start was suspended and red-flagged due to poor conditions and lack of visibility.

After a two-lap countback was performed as per regulations, Verstappen won by default, with Russell, scoring his first podium in his Formula One career, in second and Hamilton in third place.

Hamilton was the fastest in Q1 and Q2 during qualifying at the Russian Grand Prix, but was unable to set a faster lap time in Q3, due to making contact with the pit wall while on the way to change his tyres to slicks.

On lap 48, rain began to fall as Hamilton immediately pitted for Intermediate tyres while the race leader, Norris, stayed out on his slicks.

On lap 51, Norris' choice to stay out on slick tyres failed him; he ran wide at turn 5, allowing Hamilton to take the lead of the race.

Hamilton was the fastest in qualifying in Turkey, but was dropped down the grid because of a penalty due to a power unit component change.

Hamilton was forced to make a late pit stop, which cost him couple of places to finish the race in fifth position.

Having suffered from a poor pitstop and being stuck behind Ricciardo for much of the race, Mercedes called him into the pits so he can set a fastest lap.

Hamilton stood behind Verstappen for the entire race, and managed to secure second from Pérez, who was chasing close behind him.

In the São Paulo Grand Prix, Hamilton qualified on pole position, half a second ahead of Verstappen.

After the session, he was disqualified from qualifying; stewards claimed his car's DRS opening slot was larger than the permitted 85 millimeters.

Hamilton qualified on pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix, which took place for the first time in the Formula One calendar.

However, Verstappen aborted his second flying lap due to a mistake, thus Hamilton achieved pole position.

On lap 35, Antonio Giovinazzi retired from the race, which caused a virtual safety car period, Verstappen gained advantage from it, as pitted for newer tyres.

Hamilton, who had been leading the race at this point, decided to stay on his older tyres, while Verstappen pitted for fresh softs.

Hamilton crossed the finish line in second position, losing the chance to claim a record-breaking eighth World Driver's Championship.

A few of the drivers claimed Masi's decision were "made for TV" and criticised him for the safety car controversy and for allegedly not following the rules correctly.