Next F1 race: Belgian Grand Prix 2026 date, start time and how to watch live

Max Verstappen, Belgian GP, generic, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Belgian Grand Prix

F1 Belgian Grand Prix 2026 date, schedule and how to watch live

We are on to iconic Spa

Graham Shaw Consultant Editor

Digital sports specialist running global brands for 30 years

Saturday 11 July 2026 14:57 Updated: 15:08

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The F1 title race is heating up as we head to the next race in a gripping 2026 season - the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.

Round 10 of this shortened season (remember we lost Bahrain and Saudi Arabia due to the conflict in the Middle East) takes us to an iconic circuit in the heart of the Ardennes forest, and there is much at stake.

We now have ourselves a title race with both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton closing in on championship leader Kimi Antonelli after a dramatic British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

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Even the Constructors' standings are starting to get more interesting, with Ferrari closing the gap on Mercedes after two wins in the last three races.

Now we move on to one of the jewel's in F1's crown, the longest circuit on the calendar at 7.004km (4.352miles), and we have all the detail you need about what should be a gripping 44-lap race.

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When is the Belgian Grand Prix?

The next race on the calendar takes place on Sunday July 19 with a 3pm local start time at Spa-Francorchamps. That is 2pm in the UK and 9am Eastern/6am Pacific in the US.

It is NOT a Sprint weekend at Spa so we have the normal F1 format of FP1 and FP2 on Friday July 17, FP3 and Qualifying on Saturday July 18 and the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday July 19.

The action on track starts at 1330 local time on Friday with FP1 (1230 in the UK, 0730 Eastern).

How to watch the race live

Sky Sports F1 will of course have the call in the UK with NowTV also having the streaming rights. Channel 4 meanwhile will show highlights on Saturday and Sunday.

It is all change in the US in 2026 with Apple TV taking over the rights from ESPN courtesy of a five-year deal worth $750million. There is a seven-day free trial in play there so some fans will be able to watch at no cost.

Latest F1 standings, who leads the title race?

Antonelli still leads the Drivers' standings but his advantage is shrinking after a three-race run where his results are DNF/P3/P15:

Pos	Driver	Team	Points
1	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	179
2	George Russell	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	154
3	Lewis Hamilton	Scuderia Ferrari HP	147
4	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari HP	108
5	Lando Norris	McLaren Mastercard F1 Team	97

Antonelli leads but Hamilton is closing in.

Mercedes are still dominating in the Constructors' standings and they lead Ferrari by 78 points - but again that advantage has started to shrink significantly:

Pos	Team	Points
1	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	333
2	Scuderia Ferrari HP	255
3	McLaren Mastercard F1 Team	179
4	Oracle Red Bull Racing	128
5	BWT Alpine F1 Team	60

For full and complete 2026 F1 standings tables, you can click here for more.

Belgian Grand Prix Odds

The oddsmakers have taken note of recent reliability issues for Mercedes, and the market is considerably tighter for Spa than in recent races. The Silver Arrows still lead the way, but only just with odds at the time of writing looking like this:

F1 Belgian Grand Prix win odds
Driver	Team	Odds
Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	6/4
George Russell	Mercedes	11/4
Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	7/2
Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	11/2
Max Verstappen	Red Bull	11/1
Lando Norris	McLaren	25/1
Oscar Piastri	McLaren	50/1

Belgian Grand Prix history and winners

The most successful driver in Belgian Grand Prix history is the great Michael Schumacher with six victories.

Of the current grid, unsurprisingly Lewis Hamilton leads the way with five wins while Max Verstappen has three.

Hamilton's final victory for Mercedes came at Spa in 2024 after the controversial disqualification of team-mate George Russell.

From a constructor perspective Ferrari is historically the most successful team at Spa with 18 race wins - ahead of McLaren (15), Mercedes (8) and Red Bull (6).

Written by

Graham Shaw - Consultant Editor

Digital sports leader with 30 years of senior level experience running global brands. Built sportinglife.com to be a behemoth in the UK as well as being in charge of the Planet Sport network of sites including planetf1.com, football365.com, teamtalk.com and planetrugby.com. Then grew goal.com to be the world's biggest soccer website in 18 languages and 37 territories. Was GM of Portals for Perform Group (now DAZN) with overall responsibility for sportingnews.com, spox.de and voetbalzone.nl.

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F1 Belgian Grand Prix