Race report Start delays The race was due to start at 15:00
CEST on 29 August but was delayed multiple times due to persistent rain. However, despite the
FIA race director
Michael Masi initially suggesting to the contrary, Pérez was allowed by race officials to join the race after the
Red Bull Racing mechanics were able to repair Pérez's car during the delay following the first red flag. A first attempt was made to start the race at 15:25 CEST, with two formation laps (that did not count towards a race classification) being completed behind the
safety car before the starting procedure was suspended with cars queueing in the pit lane, in line with the regulations. At 17:00 CEST, the stewards used the powers given to them under article 11.9.3.o of the 2021 edition of the FIA International Sporting Code (which allowed the stewards to permanently or temporarily stop an event) to suspend the race clock on grounds of
force majeure.
Race start and finish After over three hours of delays and suspended starts, at 18:17 CEST the race officially commenced from the pit lane and two more laps were completed under the safety car, with these laps being considered as race laps by race control, which allowed for the results to be classified and half points to be awarded. During the third lap, the race was suspended again and was not resumed. The race result was taken after the first lap, in compliance with Formula One regulations which required a two-lap countback.
Max Verstappen was declared the race winner (scoring his 16th career F1 win and sixth win of the season as a result) ahead of
George Russell in second and
Lewis Hamilton third. The remaining points scorers were
Daniel Ricciardo in fourth,
Sebastian Vettel in fifth,
Pierre Gasly in sixth,
Esteban Ocon in seventh,
Charles Leclerc in eighth,
Nicholas Latifi in ninth and
Carlos Sainz Jr. in tenth. Verstappen's win was Red Bull Racing's fourth Belgian Grand Prix win and their first at the venue since Ricciardo's 2014 win as well as the first F1 win at Spa for a Honda powered car since
the 1991 event. With only a single official lap completed, and an official completed distance of , it is the shortest ever race in the history of the sport, eclipsing the previous records set in terms of kilometres of distance covered at the
1991 Australian Grand Prix (which was raced over and 14 laps) and in terms of official lap count at the
1971 German Grand Prix (which lasted 12 laps). For the sixth time in Formula One history and for the first time since the
2009 Malaysian Grand Prix, half points were awarded. Russell's second place was his first career podium and the first for the
Williams Racing team since
Lance Stroll finished third for the team at the
2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix and the last until
Carlos Sainz Jr finished third for the team at the
2025 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Stroll finished this race 18th on the road but was classified in 20th, having been handed a 10-second time penalty for a rear wing change under
parc fermé conditions during the first red flag period. This promoted
Kimi Räikkönen to 18th and Pérez to 19th.
Charles Leclerc was investigated for a change of tyres during the start delays but was not penalised as the change was quickly reversed. , this race is the only World Championship Grand Prix where there is no officially recognised fastest lap. This was the eleventh Formula One World Championship Grand Prix where there were no retirements during the race, and the 12th World Championship Grand Prix to finish under the safety car.
Race classification ; Notes • – Half points were awarded, as less than 75% of the race distance was completed. • –
Lance Stroll finished 18th on track, but received a post-race 10-second time penalty for a rear wing change during the red flag period. Media and drivers criticised Masi's decision to hold two laps under the safety car in still-raining conditions, with seven-time World Champion Hamilton calling the race "a farce" and criticised, among others, the alleged attempt to fulfill the requirements for awarding points. They argued that points should never have been awarded.
Sebastian Vettel,
Fernando Alonso, and
Alfa Romeo Racing criticised the decision to award half points for the race.
Daniel Ricciardo defended the decision to do so, as did Red Bull's Pérez. Ricciardo's
McLaren teammate
Lando Norris was left conflicted by the FIA's decision to award points since this benefited his fellow driver but thought it was not a race "deserving of points". Verstappen commented that it was not "the way you want to win". Russell was pleased to achieve his first Formula One podium despite the unusual circumstances, saying: "You don't get rewarded for this very often." He added that he had been rewarded for a strong qualifying on Saturday, whilst also sympathising with, and apologising to, the attending fans for the lack of action in the Grand Prix itself. Despite his driver winning the event, Red Bull team principal
Christian Horner felt the decision to award points was not right. Mercedes team boss
Toto Wolff called the decision to award half points "annoying". Hamilton and
Carlos Sainz Jr. called for spectators who bought tickets to be refunded. Hamilton stated his belief that Formula One had "made a bad choice" to complete two full laps behind the safety car before abandoning the race, alleging this was done purely to ensure Formula One fulfilled its commercial obligations.
Formula One Group CEO
Stefano Domenicali quickly rejected these claims.
Haas F1 team principal
Guenther Steiner suggested the criteria for awarding half points was possibly becoming outdated and needed updating. Pundit Scott Mitchell was also of the opinion that fans who attended the race deserve compensation, and that Formula One risked alienating some of its fanbase if it did not refund ticket holders in some way. In September 2021 Formula One and the race promoters then announced in a statement they would begin working on options for ticket holders following the race's suspension. However, despite this initial statement, in December 2021, it was announced that the race promoters would not refund ticketholders, and offer race attendees free passes for F1TV and the chance to be entered into a prize draw to win tickets to the
2022 Belgian Grand Prix. Two-time world champion
Mika Häkkinen defended the decisions made by officials during the event.
Scuderia AlphaTauri driver
Pierre Gasly stated that Formula One needed to find a solution in order to reduce the amount of spray Grand Prix cars produce in wet conditions to improve driver visibility.
Pirelli's head of motorsport
Mario Isola said he felt the sport's decision to move to wider tyres from the season onwards was a contributing factor to drivers having more visibility problems in wet conditions, as they disperse more water compared to pre-2017 tyres. Vettel and Alonso dismissed the notion that the FIA was being overcautious with safety, citing the modern aerodynamics of the cars, downforce levels and wide Pirelli tyres that had made visibility worse when driving in wet weather – with races such as the
2007 Japanese Grand Prix (a race Vettel, Hamilton, Räikkönen, and Alonso all took part in) conducted over a full distance in arguably worse heavy rain conditions than those seen in at Spa. Adam Cooper of
Autosport felt that the two lap requirement – a requirement which had been in use since between the
1977 and
1980 seasons and long pre-dated the official introduction of the safety car in Formula One was "a ticking time bomb that exploded" during race day events at Spa. world champion
Nigel Mansell said that if he had been in charge of running the race, he would have relaxed parc fermé conditions for a wet race to allow teams to make needed set-up changes to make the cars driveable in tricky conditions. world champion and 22-time Grand Prix winner
Damon Hill called the Grand Prix "a parade, not a race". Fellow former F1 drivers
Pedro de la Rosa and
Hans Joachim Stuck said that races would have started under such conditions in the past, with De la Rosa stating the sport had reduced its risk threshold compared to what was acceptable 10 or 15 years ago. Russell's performance in qualifying was praised and considered the high point of the weekend by pundits Edd Straw and Scott Mitchell. Journalist
David Tremayne also praised Russell's performance, suggesting it was an indication that he was ready to step up to Mercedes seat for the 2022 season.
F1TV's Lawrence Barretto and
Will Buxton felt that while it was a difficult decision to abandon the race, the FIA had no choice but to shorten the race for safety reasons, and praised fans for their perseverance. Journalist
Mark Hughes was critical of the decision to run two full laps behind the safety car, believing that doing so called into question the sport's "better values"; he suggested there was an undercurrent of cynicism from F1 bosses towards the fans, which he believed did not create a good image for the sport. However, fellow journalist
Joe Saward in his blog stated that he felt the FIA handled the situation as best they could within the parameters of the regulations even if the scenario was not ideal, noting the fans suffered. Journalist Josh Suttil considered the events at the race to be Formula One's biggest race-day debacle since the
2005 United States Grand Prix (where 14 cars withdrew at the end of the formation lap due to tyre safety concerns, leaving six cars in the race).
Gary Anderson, Formula One pundit and former F1 technical director, and
Martin Brundle, former F1 driver-turned-commentator, suggested that the race would have been better if cars had been running in
virtual safety car conditions. Brundle also mentioned the idea of F1 possibly introducing 'slow zones', where a speed limit is imposed on part of the track. Anderson also proposed that the criteria for half-points should be extended going forward to require that at least 50% of the original scheduled race distance be run, without changing the current distance requirement for full points (75% of scheduled distance complete). He included the additional stipulation that at least 25% of the laps completed before race-end must be done under
green flag conditions for a race to be considered eligible for points-scoring of any kind. In January 2022, Anderson wrote: "Spa was also a disgrace. How can half-points be awarded after three laps behind a safety car? The official result was based on just one lap of that!" Journalist Luke Smith also advocated changing rules whilst saying the podium celebrations of Verstappen and Russell in particular were "tone deaf", and contrasted them to Hamilton's restrained reaction. GPFans.com called it a "step backwards for F1" with their pundit Ian Parkes saying "F1 must take us for fools" in response to the claim that there had been a genuine attempt to go racing. Parkes was also critical of the general confusion surrounding rules on race day, such as whether Sergio Pérez could join the race after his pre-race crash, or when exactly the race itself and the race clock had been deemed to have started. F1 managing director
Ross Brawn described the events at Spa as "a challenging day", whilst praising Russell's performance.
Clarification of race management The Formula One regulations at the time of the race mandated that a minimum of two laps must be completed to award any points. The
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile noted that it was "impractical" to delay the race until the following day. There was post-race confusion as to whether points would be awarded given that the classification showed one was completed, but the regulations stated that a minimum of two laps must be completed for a race to be eligible for points. Masi clarified that race was eligible for points as, "three laps were completed ... The third lap was completed when cars crossed the control line in the [pit lane] ... And then the classification for points is taken on the penultimate lap before the lap the signal was given [, the end of the first lap]."
Regulation changes Formula One Management stated in the race aftermath that it intended to have discussions with the teams and the FIA regarding changes to sporting regulations to prevent such an occurrence from happening again. The proposed changes would attempt to formulate a more satisfactory minimum requirement for a classification to be achieved than was required under the 2021 rules, as well as discussing the possibility of written provisions in the rules enabling race organisers to reschedule a race if it were unsuitable to run the race on its original date. After one of the races of the
2021 Sochi Formula 3 round had its start time changed due to poor weather, Masi suggested that Formula One could adopt a similar rule to reduce the chances of having to abandon a race for bad weather. In January 2022,
McLaren CEO
Zak Brown cited the aborted Spa race, alongside the last minute cancellation of the
2020 Australian Grand Prix and the controversial restart at the subsequent
2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as signs that the FIA had suffered organisational and rule-making problems for a significant period of time which needed to urgently be resolved. At a Formula One Commission meeting held in October 2021, changes concerning how points are awarded were discussed. The commission then recommended that the matter be discussed further at the next meeting of the FIA's Sporting Advisory Committee to set out proposals for regulatory and procedural changes regarding the awarding of points at shortened races. Any changes agreed upon by the Sporting Advisory Committee were required to then go to the FIA's World Motorsport Council for final ratification. In response to the race, Formula One started research into how to improve wet weather racing, looking at possibility of redesigning the cars to reduce spray whilst also preventing
aquaplaning. In February 2022, the Formula One Commission approved rule changes, ahead of the start of the
2022 championship: the new
points scoring criteria for shortened races was introduced. Although this was intended to be applied to all races which had not reached full distance, a clarification at the
2022 Japanese Grand Prix - where most of the paddock expected partial points to be awarded, but full points were given after 28 of 53 laps were completed - meant that changed rule only applied to races that were suspended and could not be restarted. The wording of this regulation was amended for 2023 to ensure that the number of points awarded was dictated purely by the percentage of full race distance covered irrespective of whether a race ends under red or green flag condition- thereby fulfilling the original intention behind introducing a gradual scale points system for shortened races. Starting in the 2022 season, Formula One began exploring the possibility of introducing wet-weather specific wheel arches to improve visibility and with it the raceability of cars in wet conditions. They were timetabled to be introduced in midway through the
2023 season, or in time for the start of the season. Furthermore, in February 2023 Pirelli announced its intention to introduce a new, more raceable full wet tyre compound which they planned to have ready and available for use for the ultimately cancelled
2023 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix onwards and this tyre has subsequently entered service as of the
2023 Monaco Grand Prix. In 2023, George Russell stated that the wheel-arches were years away and reiterated that Pirelli full wet tyres remained largely unsuited to green flag racing even two years on from the Spa 2021 fiasco. Pirelli have responded to this continued criticism by proposing the introduction of a third wet weather (colloquially dubbed a "super-intermediate" tyre by
RaceFans) possibly to serve as an in-between step between the existing Intermediate and Full Wet tyres in an attempt to give drivers an opportunity to go at racing speed in wetter conditions. Pirelli has also suggested that proposed tyre could also replace the existing Full Wet and Intermediate tyres with
Mario Isola suggesting that Pirelli's newly proposed wet tyre showed improved performance and grip and able to work across a wider window of track wetness and grip compared to existing 2023 range of tyres following testing of these prototype tyres at
Fiorano and
Paul Ricard. Isola also stated his belief that moving to single wet tyre compound would be more cost effective. A spray guard design was tested by Oscar Piastri and Mick Schumacher following the
2023 British Grand Prix. However, this was deemed not successful with Ben Anderson and Scott Mitchell-Malm writing for
The Race remarking the spray guard idea could be indefinitely delayed or abandoned. In May 2024 Ferrari tested a revised spray guard design on their at the Fiorano Circuit. This design was reported as being 'more aggressive' than the design trialled in 2023. Following this test the FIA decided to abandon the idea of spray guards altogether. ==Championship standings after the race==