Belgian GP: Five things we learnt from qualifying

Rosberg's beaten again – but all's not lost yet

It's lucky for Nico Rosberg that Mercedes' single-lap advantage remains a chasm over the rest of the field given his increasing troubles to hang onto Lewis Hamilton in qualifying. While the German's now 10-1 deficit to his team-mate on Saturdays is an-ever growing headache, the particularly concerning detail for Rosberg is the recent size of his team-mate's final Q3 advantage.

Four weeks ago in Hungary, Hamilton claimed pole by 0.575 seconds and here in Belgium the Briton's pole-winning margin was the best part of half a second again. In many other seasons, the result for Rosberg certainly wouldn't be a berth alongside his team-mate on the front-row.

Although he admitted after his scary tyre blow-out in second practice session that the incident would be "a bit of a dent in the confidence," Rosberg, having set the pace on the opening day, nonetheless ended Friday in punchy mood - suggesting he was "one step ahead" of Hamilton and the Briton was likely to adopt his set-up for the W06. Whether or not Hamilton ultimately did that is a moot point - come Saturday he got the most out of a car and engine which remains the class of the field.

However, for all that, both Mercedes drivers acknowledged after qualifying that anything could still happen across the 44 laps of racing at Spa. If the prospect of rain and the changes to the start procedure could create enough unpredictability, the long uphill run from La Source, turn one, to Les Combes, turn five, invariably gives the chasing driver the chance to attack on the opening laps. Two years ago it was Vettel who outdragged the polesitting Hamilton down the Kemmel Straight and then last season Rosberg, having lost the lead to his team-mate at the start, attempted to do the same on lap two - although his ham-fisted efforts only produced an acrimonious clash between the two Silver Arrows.

Twelve months on and provided the two W06s get off the line well - which certainly isn't a given after the last two races - then at least the opening laps of the race should be rather closely-fought than their increasingly one-sided qualifying duel. 

Honda fail to deliver again

Another three tokens spent, but seemingly no progress for Honda as McLaren were once again left languishing at the back of the field.

Only ahead of the two Manors, Jenson Button was a second slower than Felipe Nasr - the next lowest qualifier - with Fernando Alonso even further behind. However, Honda seemingly put the blame on McLaren after the session for running too much downforce.

"The updates have not been reflected in the results. In FP3, the team had planned to reduce the downforce of the car to resolve the issues of yesterday," said Honda's chief motorsport officer Yasuhisa Arai. "Unfortunately, we encountered an exhaust issue on Fernando's car, which consequently stalled the set-up changes to both cars."

But if it was simply too much downforce, McLaren would at least look competitive through the middle sector. They didn't, which once again points back to the power unit. Honda's insistence of not hiring any external staff to assist the project is coming under increased scrutiny and may further delay any improvements.

"You need to fast track, you need to get the knowledge in right away," said Sky F1's Martin Brundle. "Imagine if Ferrari said 'we only hire Italians' - then you wouldn't have had Michael Schumacher, Jean Todt, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne and look how that worked out. It is a cosmopolitan, international business and you just have to get the best in the world to make your car, your engine, whatever it is perform as quickly as possible as fast as possible."

With the next race at Monza also engine dependent, it could be a long few weeks for McLaren.

Hopes of a Vettel title tilt is clutching at straws

So is Sebastian Vettel's title challenge over? Or was it never really on at all? It would be unwisely rash to rule a driver of the German's calibre out of the championship running on the back of one sub-par qualifying performance, but given so much had been written and spoken in the build-up to F1's return to action about the prospect of the Ferrari driver taking it to the Mercedes pair over the remainder of the season, Saturday felt like a reality check.

Vettel's ninth-fastest qualifying time - which becomes eighth on the grid owing to Romain Grosjean's five-place penalty - was in part attributed by the German to a "costly" error at the final corner on his last effort, but even without that he conceded it was "not enough to go P3" ahead of Valtteri Bottas. Ferrari have made impressive strides with their chassis and engine this year, but the pre-eminence of Mercedes power at the top of the timesheet at Spa served to underline that they still have a long way to go to fight the German marque on an equal footing.

Ahead of a race with such a history of unpredictability as Belgium, it's of course not beyond the realms of possibility that Vettel could even leave Spa with a reduced championship deficit - that is, after all, what happened for Daniel Ricciardo against all odds in 2014 - but as of Saturday night Vettel's 42-point title gap to Hamilton suddenly seems a lot more than it did before. The four-time champion said himself on Thursday that getting in the mix with the Mercedes' was always going to be "bloody difficult". He certainly wasn't wrong.

Grosjean serves up a reminder

Romain Grosjean served up another reminder that he is a very fast driver when given machinery in which he can challenge after posting the fourth-quickest Q3 time. The Frenchman was a tad erratic when he returned to F1 in 2012 after winning the GP2 title the previous year. Podiums in Bahrain, Canada and Hungary showed he had the pace, but it was at Spa where he triggered a huge first-corner collision that came close to causing serious injury to Fernando Alonso. A one-race ban followed.

Later that year, Mark Webber branded him "a first lap nutcase" and questions were raised as to how long he would remain in the sport having already been dropped once by the Enstone team.

However, fatherhood and more F1 experience seems to have calmed Grosjean and he matched up impressively against Kimi Raikkonen during their time as team-mates. Against Pastor Maldonado, a fellow GP2 champion, Grosjean has dominated the intra-team battle.

While some raised a suspicious eyebrow when Grosjean revealed he had spoken to Ferrari about a potential race seat, it shouldn't come as a surprise. As demonstrated at Spa on Saturday, he has tremendous pace and can now be relied upon to deliver when given the opportunity. It's just a shame that a grid penalty outside his control means he'll actually start Sunday in the more mediocre realms of row five.

Mercedes power still the one to have

If there was any doubt that a Mercedes power unit was the one to have, qualifying at Spa quickly put those to bed. The top five cars in the session were all powered by the Brixworth-built unit - indeed there was only one car in the top eight powered by another manufacturer.

The long straights at the home of the Belgian GP mean it is all about horsepower, particularly in the first and third sectors, and thus Lotus and Force India found themselves fighting with Williams to be best of the rest behind Mercedes. Ferrari, the only other team to win this season, had no answers with Sebastian Vettel only ninth.

The simple fact was the Ferrari just couldn't match the Mercedes power units as the cars blasted from Paul Frere to the final chicane.