Campos signed Euroformula Open championship leader Marino Sato to replace Maini prior to the round.

[9] Trident driver Giuliano Alesi was running tenth when he spun into the barriers while going through Eau Rouge, damaging the rear of the car and bouncing back onto the circuit at the exit of the corner.

Ralph Boschung, Anthoine Hubert and Jordan King had been running eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth at the time and took evasive action.

Boschung cleared Alesi's Trident by taking to the tarmac run-off on the outside of the corner and King was able to slow in time to avoid contact.

He hit a piece of debris which lodged under a front wheel, preventing his car from steering effectively and causing it to go straight into the tarmac run-off.

Campos driver Marino Sato braked to a complete stop to avoid cars on track, but in so doing stalled his engine and could not continue.

Alesi was similarly unharmed—the accident unfolded behind him as he continued onto the Kemmel Straight—but his contact with the wall meant that his car suffered from race-ending damage and he pulled over on the approach to Les Combes.

An FIA investigation into the accident found that fifteen seconds had elapsed between Alesi's initial loss of control and the cars of Hubert and Correa coming to a halt.

A manslaughter inquiry was opened by the Verviers prosecutor's office on 2 September; a number of auto racing and road safety experts have been employed as advisers.

[22] The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the international governing body of motorsport, launched their own investigation into the accident.

It stated that previous contact with another car had caused Alesi to lose pressure in his rear tyre, setting off a chain reaction of events.

The report also concluded that Hubert had taken every reasonable measure to avoid the initial contact and that his death was not the result of a driver error.

[32] The managers of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps announced that a planned redesign of the Raidillon run-off area that had been scheduled for 2022 would be brought forward.