Mercedes: F1 title rival Ferrari was 'out of synch' at Italian GP

Lewis Hamilton snatched the lead of the F1 world championship from Sebastian Vettel at Monza, after leading home team-mate Valtteri Bottas in a crushing Mercedes one-wo.

Vettel was 36 seconds adrift in third place, prompting Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne to declare his team had "screwed up".

But Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff said Ferrari's speed elsewhere suggested Monza would be an anomaly.

"Emotions run high and when you have a bad day you can't hide it," said Wolff in response to Marchionne's comments.

"For me, it looks like this weekend Ferrari has made a step back somehow.

"We were very solid but also they haven't performed in the way everyone expected.

"Red Bull starting from the back of the grid almost finished P3.

"There's just something that's out of synch here, something that's not how it should be.

"So I can understand they are upset about it."

Wolff did feel Mercedes' Italian form was aided by extra work done in response to how close Ferrari had been in Belgium a week earlier.

"Spa wasn't as obvious and I think the job the guys did analysing the deficits we had there was really awesome," he said.

"Straight from the get-go we had a car that was really solid. Good to drive.

"In qualifying there were so many opportunities to make a mistake. But the car was good. Lots of grip, good margin, and the same in the race.

"We have proved that we have recovered well from Budapest and, in a certain sense, from Spa and are progressing with the car."

To further add to Ferrari's headache, Wolff also said that Hamilton and Bottas had both sacrificed potential performance in Italy by turning their engines down.

"We were looking at the damage matrix within the engine and trying to find a sensible way of letting them race but equally not damaging the engine too much," he said.

"But you could see that they were pushing quite a bit, Lewis running wide in the second chicane, so we are very well aware that towards the end of the season the mileage on the engine can be crucial. Therefore we turned it down a bit."