Lewis Hamilton leads and is banking fastest laps in the Mercedes. He leads the Ferrari by 0.7 seconds and looks comfortable to control this race in the early stages.

Max Verstappen has moved from P11 to eighth in the field and is hassling the McLaren of Lando Norris for seventh.

Marc Priestley
Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

That really poor start for Lando Norris has really cost him. Now he’s tucked back in a pack behind the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. He has a faster car, and it seems like he is a little bit frustrated.

He needs to calm himself down – he’s got a car that is really good on tyre management.

I think he has a car capable of winning this race.

The Mercedes leads the Belgian Grand Prix!

On the medium tyres, Lewis Hamilton is able to spy a gap to pass the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. The door and open and the seven-time world champion says 'yep, I'll take that from you'.

Leclerc drops to second, Sergio Perez is still in third.

Zhou Guanyu is slowing in the Sauber and radios to say he has problems.

We'll have to wait to see the replays to investigate what happened to Lando Norris at the start, but the Briton has made up a place to sixth.

But just as quick, the McLaren driver has to give the position back to Carlos Sainz, which has now put him under pressure from the rampaging Max Verstappen.

Charles Leclerc still leads, Lewis Hamilton is second and Sergio Perez is in third.

Marc Priestley
Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Well it wasn’t the start Perez needed but it is not the end of the world for him.

You can overtake on this circuit, he will now just need to tuck in, get himself under control and the opportunities are still going to come for him.

Charles Leclerc leads exiting La Source, with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Sergio Perez! Lando Norris has dropped down the order after going onto the gravel.

George Russell and Oscar Piastri are fighting for position and the Mercedes ends up running wide. Piastri is up to fourth and Russell is in P5 now, as Norris is all the way down in seventh spot.

Max Verstappen has climbed to ninth already.

The chase is on!

Marc Priestley
Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

It will be a little bit low grip It will grip up more as we get more rubber down but it is going to be a challenge.

Very different conditions as to when the cars were last driven – in the wet.

It's a long, long lap at Spa-Francorchamps, so Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez have just made it to the front of the grid. And now here comes the back of the field...

Special mention for Yuki Tsunoda and his RB starting at the back of the field with a 60-place grid penalty.

Go well.

The top six drivers are all starting on the medium tyres but Carlos Sainz, sitting in seventh, is a hard runner from the off.

Daniel Ricciardo in the RB has also gone for a different strategy from the rest, opting for the softest C4 compounds.

Marc Priestley
Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Perez should win this GP. He has all the tools necessary. It will come down to his own mindset and confidence.

I do expect Verstappen to come through the field, but all the way to the front? Has he got the tyre management and tyre life? Can he use that medium tyre to get past the cars in front of it, and can he hold on to it?

With McLaren's recent resurgence lifting them above Ferrari and into second place in the constructors' championship, can they make further ground on title leaders Red Bull before the paddock jets off on holiday?

The Italian team, with Charles Leclerc head of the pack from lights out, have a great opportunity to reclaim that P2 spot today, however.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

We may not have heard the Dutch national anthem for a few races but Max Verstappen is still leading the drivers' championship by 76 points from Lando Norris.

Will those seven points Norris gave up at the Hungarian Grand Prix by letting McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri go through mean anything by the end of the season? We'll have to wait and see. But the Briton is holding firm in second place, 27 points ahead of polesitter Charles Leclerc in third.

The maiden win for Piastri last weekend moves the Australian onto 149 points, while Lewis Hamilton in sixth is one point clear of Sergio Perez in seventh.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent at Spa-Francorchamps

Image source, Pirelli 2024

The Red Bull and the McLaren are expected to be the two fastest cars, and they have chosen divergent tyre strategies for what is expected to be a two-stop race on a track where tyre degradation is very high. The track has been resurfaced for about half its length and the new asphalt is providing huge grip in the dry. This works the tyres very hard and it’s why McLaren - along with Mercedes and Ferrari - are focusing their race on the hard tyre, of which all have two new sets along with one medium.

Red Bull, by contrast, have two sets of new mediums and one hard. Will the mediums be able to withstand the punishment of the long, medium- and high-speed corners?

Marc Priestley
Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

There’s lots of story lines:

Max Verstappen 10 places back with a quick car, Sergio Perez with his career under threat at the front with a fast car, and of course the McLarens developing their car to be one of the fastest on a lot of circuits.

It’s all to play for.

BaileyRanger: Zak Brown. One of the nicest guys in F1?

BBC Sounds

You can listen to the action from Spa today by clicking the 'listen live' tab at the top of this page.

There's also a new way to tune in, via most smart speakers.

Just ask BBC Sounds to play the Belgian Grand Prix, and Rosanna, Marc, Harry and Andrew will meet you there.

Image source, Getty Images

With some big name drivers out of contract soon, Sergio Perez's seat at Red Bull has become a hot commodity for the 2025 campaign - or possibly even the second half of this season.

The Mexican driver has slipped to seventh in the championship and is 141 points behind team-mate and title leader Max Verstappen.

A front-row start offers Perez the chance to get back on the podium since he finished third at the Chinese Grand Prix in April, and end on a high before the summer break.

Perez just scraped through to Q3 at the expense of Alex Albon but said his P2 on today's grid is "probably the best position you can wish for at Spa".

He added: "It’s a very long race ahead of us. I think [tyre] degradation will be quite tricky; graining with this new tarmac. I think there are a lot of unknowns still but I’ve got a good feeling for the race."

There was some concern about oil coming out of the back of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes. Martin Brundle catches up with Pete Bonnington, his race engineer, who assures us all there is nothing to worry about.

Over at Williams, Alex Albon, starting in P10, tells Sky Sports the track is feeling "grippier" and that he expects Max Verstappen to go through "pretty soon" from his spot in 11th.

Now it's time for the national anthem. Last year's version was... interesting. This year, it's a solo singer.