Toyota currently holds a ten-point advantage over Renault and 17 over RBR in the hotly-disputed constructors' battle, but the Cologne-based outfit's senior general chassis manager Pascal Vasselon knows those gaps will likely close should the team not step-up its performance on race day in Spa.

“This was one of our worst qualifying results this season,” the Frenchman acknowledged, “and it means that obviously we got something wrong in our preparation work. We will be busy trying to understand what has happened here. Qualifying in eleventh and 13th is obviously not what we expected, and it is not a satisfying result.

“From a tyre point-of-view, not surprisingly the medium and hard compounds are not really suitable for these conditions and we had a difficult time running around on quite a cold track. However, that is the same for everyone and it is for us to handle the situation. On the positive side, the tyre choice itself for the race is pretty clear.”