How to watch the Belgian Grand Prix on a live stream from anywhere – including free options

Want to know how to watch the Grand Prix from anywhere? It’s the most exciting thing happening in Belgium this week, with the Formula 1 championship front runners starting way back on the grid thanks to grid penalties. If you want to grab a live stream of the Belgian Grand Prix, however, we can put you in pole position.

As the Formula 1 season returns from its summer break and accelerates towards its likely end – ie: Max Verstappen winning it –  the Belgian Grand Prix is on Sunday August 28 at at 2pm BST, 3pm CEST, 10am ET, 7am PT, 12am AEST, 2am NZST. And various other times in other places around the world – some of which have free live streams of the race, those lucky people.

We’ve got all the info you need on how to live stream the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix no matter where you are in the world. Read the guide below, and if you happen to be outside of the country and can't access your preferred domestic broadcaster, you can always use a VPN to bypass geo-restrictions. Go go go go! As the late Murray Walker used to say.

What time is the Belgian Grand Prix? 

The Belgian Grand Prix takes place Sunday August 28 at 2pm BST, 3pm CEST (aka Belgian time). In the USA that's 10am ET, 7am PT. In Australasia 12am AEST, 2am NZST. 

The race takes place at Spa-Francorchamps Circuit in, naturellement, Belgium. Or van nature, Belgium, if you prefer the Flemish to the Walloons.

Belgium's 7.004km – 7 kilometres and 4 metres – Spa-Francorchamps circuit is one of the race calendar's highlights and Red Bull's Max Verstappen, currently 80 points clear at the top of the Championship, must be confident of extending his lead. He’s on home ground and came first in qualifying, although due to a grid penalty, he’s back in 14th – oh dear.

The only semi-serious competition would usually come from Ferrari's frequent pole winner and infrequent actual winner Charles Leclerc. But he also has a grid penalty, leaving the runaway leader and runaway 2nd place driver in this year's championship sat at 14th and 15th on the grid respectively.

That leaves Lewis Hamilton in with a slight chance of his first win of 2022. He‘s never gone a whole season without at least one win. He's 4th on the grid, right behind his old pal Fernando Alonso, so it'll be just like old times. Lewis will also be helped by a recent aerodynamics rule change that most experts think will work in his and team Mercedes’ favour. We shall see! 

How can I live stream F1 Belgian Grand Prix 2022 in the UK?

As with every Grand Prix of the 2022 season, Sky customers have the option of watching the Belgian Grand Prix live stream via Sky Sports F1 and online on the Sky Go app. 

If you don't have a Sky subscription – and if you do, come to that – you can watch the race on Now TV with a day or monthly Sports pass. A one-month pass currently costs £25.99 – £14 off the usual price – and Now Boost is thrown in for free as well, so you can watch Verstappen probably win in full HD instead of crappy old 720p.

Motor racing fans will be able to catch all of the action from Spa live with coverage starting at 12.30pm BST on Sky.

How to live stream F1 2022 Belgian Grand Prix in the US

Formula One fans Stateside need look no further than F1 TV and its unparalleled coverage. Its F1 TV Pro package gives you access to every race of the season live, as well as highlight reels and classic races from years gone by. The top tier offering also includes F2, F3, and Porsche Supercup coverage. The US subscription costs $79.99.

ESPN will also be offering comprehensive coverage of this season's action live in the US, with this race set to start Stateside on the network at 10am ET / 7am PT.

That means there's plenty of options for tuning in, but arguably the best for those wanting to watch an F1 live stream is Sling TV, whose Sling Orange package features ESPN channels, now with 50% off your first month - save big with the latest Sling TV deal.

If you're already an ESPN subscriber, but are abroad during the 2022 F1 season, don't forget that you can still tune in like you're at home with the help of a good VPN.

How to live stream the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix in Australia and selected other countries

There's a live stream option for petrolheads to tune into the action from Spa, from pretty much any corner of the world they find themselves in.

If you don't mind going without a bit of sleep Down Under, Fox Sports has the rights to show live F1 races in Australia, including this weekend's action. That means Foxtel and Kayo Sports subscribers can also watch online. Kayo Sports is currently offering a handy 14-day free trial- after that, you'll be on a rolling one month contract. Basic is $25 while Premium is $35. Green light time for the Belgian GP is at 12am AEST on Sunday night.

New Zealanders can live stream this year's Belgian GP via pay TV streaming platform Spark Sport. Spark Sport usually costs $19.99 per month, but if you only want to watch this weekend's race, you're in luck, as there's a 7-day free trial. The Belgian Grand Prix is set to start at 2am NZST on Sunday night/Monday morning.

Canadian F1 followers can watch 2022 the action on English-language TSN or French-language RDS , with both premium channels offering live streams online to subscribers. If you're not a cable customer, you can also watch the race online via the TSN Direct and RDS Direct streaming services which cost just CA$4.99 a day or (much better value) $19.99 a month. The Belgian Grand Prix starts at 10am ET / 7am PT for Canadian viewers today.

French and Dutch motor racing fans can watch every race live on F1 TV Pro for just €7.99 a month, while Sky Germany has the exclusive rights to every live F1 race this season after taking over the rights from national broadcaster RTL. 

Sky Italia will be showing all 2022 season F1 action in Italy - which means motor racing fans in the region can stream every GP live via Sky's Now TV app. A 24-hour pass costs from €14.99.

The Belgian GP is all set to start at 4pm CET.

Where can you live stream the F1 Belgian Grand Prix for free?

Not everywhere in the world has their F1 live stream behind a paywall and certain races are still available to watch for free. The best options are Austrian free-to-air service ServusTV and RTL Zwee in Luxembourg.

From our research, the following countries and broadcasters will be showing the Belgian Grand Prix for free: RTSH (Albania), ORF Eins (Austria), Idman TV (Azerbaijan), Band (Brazil), RTL (Germany), MBC Persia (Iran), MBC Action (Middle East and North Africa), and Match TV (Russia).

Can you stream the Belgian Grand Prix for free in the UK?

No. But for viewers in the UK, terrestrial channel Channel 4 will be showing race highlights from 6.30pm BST. You can also watch the qualifying highlights at 6.30pm BST on Saturday August 27. You can also stream – and rewatch – on the Channel 4's streaming service, All4, which is available to watch across all manner of devices.

How to live stream F1 2022 Belgian Grand Prix if you're abroad

If you're out of the country for this weekend's action, you can still get access to a live stream - simply use the best VPN around to avoid geo-restrictions. 

With most domestic broadcasters locking streaming services to their country, you may hit a wall when it comes to accessing the likes of All4, Sky, ESPN and TSN when overseas. However, by getting yourself a handy streaming VPN, you can hop onto a server within the US or UK (or anywhere else for that matter depending on where your online content is geo-restricted to), and this will switch your IP address to make it appear as if you're browsing right from the comfort of your own home.

ExpressVPN is our pick of VPN providers - With its consistent high speeds, and wealth of security features, alongside its ability to unlock geo-restricted content, you can live stream this weekend's Grand Prix with ExpressVPN.

Better still, it offers new customers a 30-day money back guarantee, allowing you to give it a go and find out if it's actually the service for you before you well and truly part with your hard-earned dollar. Better still, right now you can save 49% and receive an additional 3 months with your plan for free.

- Try out ExpressVPN 100% risk free to live stream F1 Belgian Grand Prix.

• New to VPN? Find out how to use one to unblock geo-restrictions

How to use a VPN to unblock any restrictions

If you're outside of your preferred broadcaster's boundaries, you can use a VPN to unblock any geo-restrictions and live stream the F1 Belgian Grand Prix as if you were right at home. Here's our step-by-step guide on how to do just that.

• VPN - standing for virtual private network - offers security and anomality as you browse online, using set protocols to encrypt your data and make it unreadable to outsiders.
• As a part of that, you can also switch your IP address, which identifies your location.
• Most VPNs offer a list of locations where its servers are based to join. Connecting to them switches your IP to appear as if you're browsing from that country/city. In turn, you can then access content locked to that country.
• When it comes to finding a VPN, you should make sure you find the best one that's suitable for your chosen device, with VPN providers offering compatibility for a ton of devices, including VPN for Mac, and even a range of fairly nifty free VPNs.
• Once you've made the decision for the most suitable VPN for your device and your means for using a VPN, sign-up and install it. 
• To live stream the F1 Belgian Grand Prix, all you need to do is select a UK server from its list of available servers and connect. You'll then be able to hop over those geo-restrictions with the likes of Sky Sports or Sling TV opening its online gates to you.
• We also want to ensure your money is well spent, so we would recommend going for a VPN that offers a risk free trial. ExpressVPN is one of many providers that has a 30-day money back guarantee.