The invention proposes a ballast control circuit and ballast control method for gas discharge lamp. The ballast control circuit and control method of the invention is advantageous by allowing the OFF time of the main switch of the ballast circuit to be fixed in order to prevent the transformer of the ballast circuit from being saturated when the gas discharge lamp is ignited and has a very low impedance, and allowing the OFF time of the main switch to be flexibly adapted when the gas discharge lamp is warmed up and its impedance has risen up to a certain value. The inventive ballast control circuit is configured to proceed with the switching of the main switch according to a lamp status signal indicative of the status of the lamp.