The tenth round of the 2026 Formula 1 season takes place at the Belgian Grand Prix.
One of the most famous tracks on the F1 calendar, Spa-Francorchamps has played host to some truly iconic moments.
As ever, teams have brought a number of updates to the track, with McLaren bringing a new rear wing to test on Friday, making use of the long Kemmel Straight for data gathering. This wing, however, was not McLaren's 'Macarena' wing, which was taken to Austria but not used.
After Max Verstappen's crash at Silverstone, Red Bull has also elected to bring a more conventional wing to Belgium. In the wake of his off, the Dutchman branded the wing "super-dangerous", with Red Bull committing to a full investigation into the underlying problem.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has warned that the Silver Arrows must fix their reliability woes, with Ferrari now breathing down the neck of points-leader Kimi Antonelli after taking two wins from the last three weekends.
Kimi Antonelli proved impossible to beat in qualifying, as he set a scorching pace to take pole position. Verstappen secured second place thanks to a tow from Red Bull team-mate Isack Hadjar, who reached Q3 but was carrying a back-of-the-grid penalty. George Russell and Charles Leclerc start from the second row.
Lando Norris was the other high-profile driver with a grid drop. Having qualified in third place, he will start from 13th on the grid after taking a fourth set of control electronics for the season.
2026 Belgian Grand Prix Saturday schedule
Grand Prix: 2:00pm BST - 4:00pm BST
Ferrari feared it didn't have the straight-line pace of its rivals, and this looks to be the case, especially with Leclerc. Piastri is charging up, flicks the overtake mode, and there's contact!
Leclerc squeezed the McLaren driver off the track at the braking zone. That could have been an aeroplane crash!
George Russell has been taken out of the Belgian Grand Prix in a first-lap collision with Lewis Hamilton.
Russell was trying to swoop around the outside Hamilton at Les Combes but the seven-time world champion suffered a snap of oversteer and slid into the side of the Mercedes driver.
How Mercedes reacted to Russell's crash.
Verstappen is in the tow and passes Leclerc into Les Combes. That all looked very easy. But has he used all of his battery?
Antonelli has already pulled clear of Leclerc by a second, escaping the overtake mode threat. But Verstappen is all over the Ferrari.
The race restarts and Hamilton dives to the inside of La Source, but Piastri returns the favour through Eau Rouge and up the hill. The McLaren driver returns to fourth place.
Looking further back, Norris had already recovered to 10th place. This intervention will allow him to make some extra progress much sooner.
The safety car will return to the pits this lap. With no lapped cars to allow through, that can be taken as fact.
The incident between Hamilton and Russell is now under investigation. That really did seem like a racing incident.
This is a strong play for Red Bull here. Hadjar has just stopped for a second time, returning to a fresh set of hard tyres. These will be able to get to the end of the race. Keep an eye on that Red Bull car when we go green again.
Russell was late on the brakes and tried to squeeze Hamilton around the outside of Les Combes. Both were going for the same hit of track and the lines were converging. Russell tried to win on lap one, and it has massively backfired.
Ocon is scraping back to the pits with a potential puncture. Hadjar is in to change off his hard tyres. Could he really take the mediums to the end?
Verstappen had nothing left on the Kemmel Straight and gambled early. Yellow flags, and now the safety car is deployed. Russell is OUT!
Nice and tidy through La Source, but there is rain on the camera. Verstappen passes Antonelli at Eau Rouge, but Antonelli and Leclerc go either side around him, and Russell is in the gravel!
We are racing!
Antonelli leads the pack into La Source for the first time.
Hands out all over the place in the pits to feel for rain. Piastri is reporting "light rain"! Plenty more, please.
Antonelli returns to the grid, but the forming up won't be quick.
So, the tyres. Mediums are the favoured options for the start, with Norris on hards in 13th place. Bottas and Sainz are on softs, with Perez, Stroll, Hadjar, and Alonso are on hards.
The clock ticks across to the hour, and the formation lap is go.
We keep thinking that umbrellas are going up, but it's just people waving at the camera. Hands down people, until the rain hits!
Cue that music! It's time to get funky!
Annoyingly, the official risk of rain is only 10%. Insert the 'so you're telling me there's a chance' meme here.
10 minutes before lights out! And maybe, 10 minutes until the rain arrives.
Ahem...about that rain. The race starts in just under 15 minutes, and light rain is expected at around that time. But there is some heavier stuff following it.
In F2 and F3 earlier in the weekend, it wasn't enough to warrant the wet tyres, but could things be different this afternoon?
The national anthem of Belgium plays, and we are now just 15 minutes from the start of the race.
It's a very mellow version of the anthem. Not unpleasant, but it's not really one to get the blood pumping.
Given the amount of lift and coast on this lap in qualifying, deployment will be key today. Yoyo-style racing will likely be in evidence, and while it could be entertaining, expect the usual complaints from drivers after the chequered flag.
