Porsche was not present for the Belgian race because of a strike in Stuttgart and so it was left for Ferrari to take on the usual British teams. In qualifying Graham Hill was fastest with Bruce McLaren alongside him in his Cooper and Trevor Taylor third quickest. Jim Clark had mechanical trouble and had to wait for a new engine. Eventually he used Taylor's car and ended up 12th on the grid. The second row featured Phil Hill's Ferrari and the British Racing Partnership Lotus of Innes Ireland while row three consisted of the Ferraris of Willy Mairesse and Ricardo Rodríguez and Masten Gregory's BRP Lotus-BRM.

Porsche driver Dan Gurney ran in Wolfgang Seidel's Lotus-BRM but after qualifying he decided the car was not fast enough and withdrew from the race.

Graham Hill took the lead at the start but battled with McLaren during the first lap. By the end of the lap Hill was back in control but he had Taylor, McLaren, a fast-starting Clark and Mairesse right with him. The early laps saw a lively slipstreaming battle between the front five cars with Taylor and Mairesse both leading. On lap nine, however, Clark was at the front and he then began to pull away from Taylor who himself moved clear of Mairesse until he spun on lap 17 and came under pressure once again from the Belgian Ferrari driver. On lap 26 Mairesse and Taylor collided at speed. The Lotus hit a telegraph pole while the Ferrari overturned and caught fire. Both drivers were fortunate to escape with minor injuries.

Clark was left with a big lead over Graham Hill, who battled a misfiring BRM most of the way, and Phil Hill who was able to hold off Rodríguez by a tenth of a second for third place.