Five months after the first Grand Prix of the year the teams gathered again in Belgium. There was no sign of the Lancia team and although Mercedes-Benz was working on a new car it was not ready and so Juan-Manuel Fangio continued to race for the Maserati team. It was, therefore, a straight fight between Maserati and Ferrari once again with Gordini providing the supporting cast as usual.

Practice resulted in Giuseppe Farina setting the fastest time in his Ferrari and he had Froilan Gonzalez alongside him on the front row with Fangio lurking on the outside. Mike Hawthorn's Ferrari was alongside Onofre Marimon's Maserati on the second row while Andre Pilette and Jean Behra (Gordini) were faster than Maurice Trintignant's Ferrari on the third row.

At the start Gonzalez took the lead but there was drama when Roberto Mieres's Maserati caught fire, the Argentine driver receiving minor burns as a result.

Gonzalez had little luck and slowed before the end of the first lap with an engine failure and so Farina moved into the lead. Marimon was also in trouble and had to pit. Fangio, however, was in his element at Spa and moved quickly through to take the lead. He lost the lead a while later when the visor strap on his helmet broke. This allowed Farina to get ahead again but Fangio set off in pursuit and was right behind the Ferrari when Farina's engine failed on lap 15. Fangio took the lead. Hawthorn was called into hand his car over to Rodriguez but the exhaust was leaking into the cockpit and so Gonzalez returned to the pits soon afterwards. All this enabled Trintignant to move up to second place in his Ferrari while Stirling Moss came home third in a Maserati, a lap behind the winner.