Lewis Hamilton secured his 73rd pole position by breaking the outright lap record again at the with a time of 1m 21.164s, 1 second faster than his 2017 Australian Grand Prix pole position time. Valtteri Bottas crashed out during Qualifying 3 and had to change his gearbox, for which he incurred a five-place grid penalty and thus qualified in fifteenth position. During the race, Mercedes opted for an early pit-stop for Hamilton on lap 19 to cover off Kimi Räikkönen. However, both Haas cars - Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean - suffered retirements due to cross-threaded wheel-nuts being fitted loosely which resulted in an unsafe release into the race track. In an order to retrieve the Romain Grosjean car without compromising the race, race director Charlie Whiting and the stewards decided to call for a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) period.