[3][4] The rest of the entrants remained unchanged from the Hungarian Grand Prix although Nicholas Latifi drove in the first practice session for Williams, replacing George Russell.

Behind the first four, Kimi Räikkönen was on the outside of Sergio Pérez on the start-finish straight and did not see Max Verstappen, who had a poor start, on inside and turned into the Red Bull driver at the first corner.

Sainz continued to be slow and did not catch up the pack after his pit stop, eventually pulling off in the run off area at the final chicane at end of his second lap.

Leclerc quickly managed to pull out of DRS range but Vettel stayed ahead of Hamilton who attacked several times before the first pit stops.

Gasly pitted on lap 13 and was around a second faster than his new Toro Rosso teammate Daniil Kvyat, showing that undercut could be quite powerful.

Vettel then set a fastest lap on 17, which included an overtake on Norris, and started taking significant time out of Leclerc, Hamilton and Bottas who had still not pitted.

Pitting at end of lap 23 for soft tyres, Albon quietly gained places whilst the battle between the Mercedes and Ferraris unfolded.

On lap 38, Albon then passed Kvyat at start of Kemmel straight to make it up to seventh leaving him more than ten seconds behind sixth placed Pérez.

As the leaders entered the second sector, Antonio Giovinazzi crashed and was buried in the wall at turn 12 bringing out yellow flags.

Leclerc managed to survive the last few corners to become the first driver to claim a maiden win at Spa since Michael Schumacher at the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix.

It was also Ferrari's first victory since Räikkönen at the 2018 United States Grand Prix, with Leclerc the Scuderia's 39th winner and Monaco the 23rd nation to win an F1 race.

At the end of their penultimate lap, Albon had closed onto the back of Pérez at the final chicane which led to an unusual turn 1 as the two drivers slowed down excessively to try and get DRS for the Kemmel straight.

Pérez stayed ahead so Albon was able to attack with DRS after Raidillon but had to go onto the grass partway down the Kemmel straight to pass the Racing Point car.