Wolff: "You can see that with Verstappen, who is in a league of his own"

Mercedes performed reasonably well in the first free practice session at Monza, but in FP2 Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had to concede more than seven tenths to fastest man Carlos Sainz. Toto Wolff admits his team is short of pace but hopes Saturday 'will not be as bad as Spa'.

During FP1, Mercedes were still in good shape on P3 and P4, but things looked a lot worse in the next session. "The balance of the car totally went away from us, total overheating of the rear tyres, no performance," Wolff said in conversation with Sky Sports.

The Mercedes team boss hopes not to see a repeat of qualifying in Spa-Francorchamps, where the drivers fell about two seconds short of Max Verstappen's fastest time. However, he does not expect his team to be as strong as they were at Zandvoort either.

Wolff is under no illusions about Mercedes' capabilities at Monza, admitting the circuit does not suit the W13. "We are simply too far away from our vehicle concept here, we are not efficient. You can see that with Verstappen, who is in a league of his own. Ferrari [is] a bit better. Our car just doesn't fit here," said the Mercedes boss.