Toto Wolff felt Kimi Antonelli may ‘walk over water’ before Monza triumph

Toto Wolff believed deep down that one of George Russell or Kimi Antonelli would win the Italian Grand Prix, and in Antonelli’s case, it would be a case of him being able to “walk over water” to do so.

Antonelli rose from 19th on the grid to take a highly unlikely victory at Monza, becoming Italy’s first home winner since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966, to further extend his championship lead on a weekend which previously labelled as having been about damage limitation.

Kimi Antonelli had victory ‘mission’ before Italian GP even started

Antonelli headed into the weekend knowing he would be starting towards the back of the grid, with an engine penalty coming his way as a result of reliability issues earlier in the season.

He made quick headway through the pack to be fighting with Russell for the lead by Lap 18, before pitting under Virtual Safety Car conditions and clawing back a separate 15-second deficit to win.

At the start of Sunday, however, Wolff believed deep down that one of his drivers would be standing on the top step at the end of the day, revealing Antonelli’s father, Marco, had a similar premonition as well.

“I thought one of the two was going to win,” Wolff told PlanetF1.com and accredited media after the race.

“Either George because he was on pole [P2, sic] or Kimi because he’s going to walk over water here in Monza, and I felt that yesterday also.

“It’s been a while that I’ve seen drivers’ energy levels, mindset, or behavioural pattern, and I knew that was his mission today, to win the race.

“I chatted with his father yesterday also, and the father also saw that coming. These are the moments where you can see that how the weekend is panning out through the sessions, that a special moment could come. It’s still a mechanical sport, so it can change greatly.”

The twist in the race came when Lance Stroll pulled over by the first chicane, prompting a Virtual Safety Car period.

With Russell on hard tyres until the end of the race, Mercedes opted to pit Antonelli, with Max Verstappen also following in behind, for fresh rubber that would guarantee grip until the chequered flag.

Russell admitted afterwards that he believed both drivers would be staying out, though either strategy call would have been a “roll of the dice” by the team.

More analysis from the Italian Grand Prix

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Italian GP driver ratings: Another costly Leclerc mistake and an Antonelli masterclass

Antonelli’s hard-tyre start had been scuppered with the early red flag for Charles Leclerc’s huge crash at Parabolica, and while the Italian needed to force his way up the order, Wolff made a comparison with Lewis Hamilton’s ability to navigate traffic in Antonelli’s determination to reach the front.

“In a way, we had to go on a one-stop strategy with the hard, and we knew that he’s going to go through the field,” Wolff explained, “then the race was red-flagged, and then suddenly you find yourself on the back foot with the medium.

“That proved out to be the right strategy, but the differentiator today was the ability going through the traffic, and we’ve seen it with other great ones in the past.

“Lewis, who did it at some of the races, and that’s what he’s shown today. There’s just no stopping when a driver and a car are one, then there is nothing that can stop them.”

With questions raised over whether Russell should have had priority to pit first as the lead driver, despite having tyres that would have survived until the end of the race, the Mercedes team principal clarified when asked by PlanetF1.com: “We didn’t know what was the better strategy.

“At that stage, the system said that the one-stop comes out ahead, that two-stop was coming close to the end, but wouldn’t catch, so that’s what the software said. You’ve got to gauge it at a certain stage.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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