2026 F1 Belgian Grand Prix : Full Spa-Francorchamps weekend schedule

The Formula 1 title fight is set for another crucial chapter as the championship heads to Spa-Francorchamps. Last time out, Charles Leclerc ended a victory drought stretching back almost two years, capitalising on Kimi Antonelli's retirement to take the win. The Mercedes driver has now seen his championship lead shrink even further after recording another DNF in Barcelona, followed by a third-place finish in Austria.

The Italian arrives at Spa holding a 25-point advantage over his teammate and a 32-point lead over Lewis Hamilton, while the Monegasque has moved back ahead of both McLaren drivers to revive his own title hopes, despite still sitting a long way off the top.

After the Sprint event at Silverstone, Formula 1 returns to its traditional weekend format at Spa-Francorchamps, with Free Practice 1 getting underway on Friday at 13:30 CET (12:30 BST), followed by Free Practice 2 at 17:00 CET (16:00 BST). The final practice session takes place on Saturday at 12:30 CET (11:30 BST) before qualifying begins at 16:00 CET (15:00 BST). The Belgian Grand Prix then gets underway on Sunday at 15:00 CET (14:00 BST).

Following the British Grand Prix, Verstappen admitted he was not expecting Spa-Francorchamps to suit Red Bull any better than Silverstone, despite describing the Belgian circuit as one of his favourites. The Dutchman suggested the characteristics of the track could make for another difficult weekend.

That assessment was echoed by Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies, who explained to the media, including GPblog, that the data gathered at Silverstone would be used to make progress ahead of similar circuits. While acknowledging that Spa could expose some of the same hardware limitations, he also stressed his confidence in the team's ability to improve and expressed hope that Red Bull would be in a stronger position for the Belgian Grand Prix.