Belgian Grand Prix Live

The Formula One Championship continues forward on August 26^th, 27^th and 28^th with the Belgian Grand Prix, which will be held in Spa-Francorchamps. This is the 12^th race of the year and there are just seven more to go after this one. Still to come on the Formula One Championship calendar, the Italian Grand Prix and Japanese Grand Prix, with stops in Singapore, India, Abu Dhabi and Brazil still to come. Previously, Jenson Button with McLaren Mercedes completed the seventy lap Hungarian Grand Prix to take home the title, July 29^th to the 31^st.

Right now, the top five in the driver's standings are Sebastian Vettel from Germany with 234 points with Mark Webber in second with 149. British driver Lewis Hamilton comes in third with 146 points while Fernando Alonso is fourth. Jenson Button is fifth right now. In the teams, Red Bull Racing Renault comes in first, with McLaren Mercedes a not-so-close second and Ferrari in third place. If you want to watch the Formula One Championship live from anywhere in the world, then sign up at the banners and get access to races anywhere you have internet.

Posted: 27th August 2008

August 27^th through the 29^th will be the next installment in the Formula One Championship Series, the Belgian Grand Prix, which is the 13^th race of the series, and we only have six more races to go after this one. The Belgian Grand Prix will be followed by the Italian Grand Prix, held in Monza, September 10^th through the 12^th. You can watch Formula One streams live right from your computer. You'll get high quality video access to Formula One online by clicking on the links on this page and getting your membership.

We started the event in Bahrain, with a race on March 14^th, and that was won by Fernando Alonso with Ferrari. Next, the series moves on to Australia, won by Jensen Button, who also went on to win two races later at the Chinese grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel won the Malaysia Grand Prix. Mark Webber has won the most races, with a total of four out of just twelve run, winning at Spain, Monaco and Great Britain. Most recent was the Hungary Grand Prix, and Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber was once again the winner, with Fernando Alonso in second and Sebastian Vettel in third.

Let's take a look at the current Formula One Championship Standings. In the driver's standings Mark Webber leads with 161 points, but Lewis Hamilton is in second with 157 points. Sebastian Vettel is third in the standings with 151 points. For the teams, Red Bull Racing Renault is number one with 312 points while McLaren comes in second. Ferrari takes third with 238 points. You can watch the Formula One Championship online live right from your computer. You'll get access to high quality video with your membership.

Posted: 28th August 2009

The Belgian Grand Prix will take place Sunday, August 30^th, as we near the end of the Formula One racing calendar. In fact, if we don't count the race in Belgium, there are only six more Grand Prix's on the F1 2009 Calendar. Before those however, is the 2009 Formula One ING Belgium Grand Prix, an exciting and challenging race that began in 1925 and is hosted at the world famous Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the site of races like 24 hours of Le Mans and Spa 24 hours. This race is popular with both fans and drivers, and rightly so, because the Belgian Grand Prix is an unpredictable race, not only in winners but also for the weather, amazingly raining each night for the Grand Prix race twenty years in a row. Another reason that the race is so popular is the Spa Circuit, thought by many drivers to be the most challenging course in all of Formula 1 racing, being especially tough and slippery when wet.

The Spa Circuit actually isn't where many of the GP's were held. The circuit, built in 1921 and hosting the Belgium race since 1924, was the cause of serious accidents during the early years. The circuit would take the life the Britain's Dick Seamon, killed while leading the 1939 race, as well as Chris Bristow and Alan Stacey, although the latter couldn't exactly be claimed to be the fault of the circuit, as he was hit in the face by a bird, still did nothing for early Spa's reputation for danger. The most memorable of these incidents was the death of Antionio Ascari, who won the very first Belgian Grand Prix, and who's son Alberto would race upon the same track. In June of 1969, the Belgian GP that was scheduled was called off, after Jackie Steward visited and inspected the track on behalf of the Grand Prix Driver's Association. He demanded that the road surfaces be fixed and safety barriers put in place, but when the owners were unable to comply, the 1969 race was called off.

1972 rolled around, and the Spa track was considered far too dangerous for Formula One, so the Belgians alternated between an unremarkable track at Nivelles-Baulers around Brussels, and Zolder. The problem was, although the circuits now hosting the race were safe for the drivers, the excitement and challenge of the Spa Circuit were gone. Those years away from Spa saw the race won by Jackie Stewart and Emerson Fittipaldi alternately until 1975 when, without the excitement from the Spa Circuit, organizers, drivers and fans seemed unwilling to participate and the Nivelles Baulers track was discontinued. The race was then hosted a total of nine more times, with names like Niki Lauda and Gunnar Nilsson on the podiums, as well as Mario Andretti, Jodi Scheckter and Didier Piron. In 1982, Mclaren's John Watson won the race, the last year for the Zolder track and the following year Spa-Francorchamps was rebuilt and the Belgium Grand Prix returned home.

There have only been ten drivers in the Belgium Grand Prix's long and illustrious history that have won the race more than once. The most prolific of these was Michael Shumacher, who had a total of six wins in the eleven year period between 1992 and 2002. Ayrton Senna had five, the first in 1985 and then successive wins from 1989 to 1991. Jim Clark had four all won in the sixties and then Juan Manuel Fangio won three times durin ghe 1950's, Damon Hill thrice during the nineties and then it was the turn of the century and Kimi Raikkonen's decade, winning in 2004, 2005 and 2007. Driver's who had just two wins at the Belgium Grand Prix live include Alberto Ascari, Emerson Fillipaldi, Niki Lauda and Alain Prost in the eighties.

In 2006, the Belgian Grand Prix was taken off the Formula One calendar, since major repairs were underway at the track and they wouldn't be finished by the time the race came around. It was done by 2007, and the race was a go, a year in which Kimi Raikkonen took pole, and then won this third Belgian Grand Prix title in a row. Last year, Lewis Hamilton took the top podium position, driving on a rain soaked track he battled with Raikkonen for first, and indeed Raikkonen was able to pull ahead for a while, but Hamilton fought hard and took back his lead with only two laps to go, an upset that is one of the greatest moments in racing history. However, there was a technical foul from Hamilton, and the Stewards changed the order of win, putting Felipe Massa in first, Nick Heidfeld in second, and Lewis Hamilton all the way back down to third.

Let's talk circuit stats. The Spa-Francorchamps circuit is 7.004 kilometers and the total race distance is just over 308 kilometers. This is the 65^th edition of the race, and the drivers compete in the rain, sun sleet or snow for a grueling 44 laps. There are also a grand total of 19 turns to contend with. This year's race takes place from August 28^th to the 30^th, with day one solely practice. Day two gives more practice to the drivers with the qualifying starting later that afternoon and the race on Sunday at 14:00.

The drivers just finished up with the European Grand Prix in Valencia on August 23^rd, and after a challenging 57 laos and more than 308 miles Rubens Barichello came in first with a time of 1:35:51.2895. Lewis Hamilton came in second, just two and ½ second behind, while third place went to Kimi Raikkonen, a full sixteen seconds behind. Four seconds later Heikki Kovalainen took fourth and then it was Nico Rosberg with fifth place.

The regular group of drivers will be taking to this circuit including Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton, Nick Heidfeld, Felipe Massa, Rubens Barichello and Jenson Button, as well as the rest of your favorites and you can watch them race on the most challenging circuit in Formula One racing right here on www.liveracingonline.com. With you membership, which you can get just by clicking the banners on this page, you'll have access to our exclusive member's area where you can catch all of the live feeds and streams from the race, in the highest quality available on the Web. The Belgian Grand Prix live 2009 is August 28^th through the 30^th from Spa-Francorchamps. Don't miss it!