"I don't want to depress you mate but..."

If anything summed up qualifying at Spa it was Vettel's race engineer Guillaume "Rocky" Rocquelin's radio transmission to the four time champ right after he secured P3 with a,balls out,  hail Mary lap:

"P3 Great lap. I hate to depress you mate, but we're over 2 seconds off the Mercs..."

Two seconds is crushing. How?

It's probably more than just "the engine" because certainly none of the other Mercedes engined teams came close.

One thing is certain however, nobody else came close to the Silver Arrow top speed at the end of the Kamel straight.  322 km/h 200.8 mph for Rosberg... in the rain.

Vettel hit 317 once but then didn't make the corner at Les Combes.