Jackie Stewart claimed pole position for March-Ford with a time of 3:28.0. Jochen Rindt qualified second for Lotus-Ford at 3:30.1, with Amon third in the second March at 3:30.3. Jacky Ickx placed his Ferrari fourth at 3:30.7, Brabham fifth at 3:31.5, and Rodríguez sixth at 3:31.6. Rolf Stommelen, Ignazio Giunti, Ronnie Peterson, and Jo Siffert completed the top ten qualifiers. Alex Soler-Roig failed to complete sufficient laps in practice and did not start.
The race ran 28 laps of the 14.100 km Spa-Francorchamps circuit, covering 394.800 km in total. Rodríguez took the win for BRM in 1 hour 38 minutes 9.9 seconds. Amon finished second 1.1 seconds behind, having also set the fastest lap at 3:27.4 on lap 27 — a speed of 152 miles per hour. Jean-Pierre Beltoise was third for Matra, 1 minute 43.7 seconds adrift. Ignazio Giunti came home fourth in the Ferrari on his Formula One World Championship debut. Rolf Stommelen was fifth in a Brabham-Ford, and Henri Pescarolo was credited sixth for Matra despite retiring with an electrical problem.
Among the retirements, pole-sitter Stewart dropped out on lap 14 with engine failure; championship leader Rindt retired on lap 10 also with engine failure. Brabham retired on lap 19 with clutch failure. Graham Hill and John Miles retired their Lotus entries, and Piers Courage's De Tomaso-Ford was out on lap 4 with oil pressure failure.
The 1970 Belgian Grand Prix carried a density of records unusual even by the standards of Formula One history.
It was the last Formula One World Championship race held on the original Spa-Francorchamps circuit. The track did not host a World Championship race again until 1983, by which time it had been substantially shortened and rebuilt. The 14.100 km road circuit on which the race was run no longer exists in its pre-1970 form.
Rodríguez's victory was his last in Formula One. He was killed in a sports car race at the Norisring in July 1971. The win also ended a lengthy drought for BRM: it was the constructor's first victory since Jackie Stewart won the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix. It was only the second Formula One win by a Mexican driver, the first having been Rodríguez himself at the 1967 South African Grand Prix, and it remained the last by a Mexican driver until Sergio Pérez won the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix — a gap of fifty years.
The race was the final Formula One victory for tyre manufacturer Dunlop. Chris Amon's fastest lap at 152 mph set a new lap record for the original Spa circuit in Formula One competition; Rodríguez himself had lapped the same venue at 160 mph in a sports car race the week before. Ignazio Giunti's fourth-place finish on his championship debut was a notable result for Ferrari. It was also the first Formula One World Championship race since the 1968 French Grand Prix not to be won by a Ford-powered car, ending a sequence of twenty consecutive victories for Cosworth DFV-engined machinery.
After the race, Jack Brabham led the Drivers' Championship with 15 points, Stewart second on 13, and Rodríguez third on 10. In the Constructors' standings, March led on 19 points ahead of Brabham on 17.