A vehicle control apparatus performing an automatic driving of a vehicle includes: a vehicle information acquiring unit that acquires vehicle information related to a nearby vehicle; a setting unit that sets an intervehicle margin between the vehicle and the nearby vehicle by using the vehicle information, and determines a change timing of a travelling speed of the vehicle depending on the intervehicle margin; and a driving control unit that performs in a lane change operation, a control of changing the travelling speed of the vehicle at the change timing, and a control of an intervehicle distance between the vehicle and a preceding vehicle of the vehicle after the lane change operation.