Toto Wolff has conceded that he doesn’t fully understand how Kimi Antonelli executed a “miracle lap” in Qualifying for the United States Grand Prix, which earned the Italian pole position.
Although Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc topped the times in Q1 and Q2 respectively, Antonelli put together a crucial lap in the final segment to take provisional pole with a time of 1m 34.035s.
He failed to complete a second effort after making a small error, but it ultimately didn’t matter as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen didn’t find any improvement either, securing the Italian’s hold on P1 for the seventh time this season.
With George Russell settling for P6 in the second Mercedes – over four-tenths adrift of his team mate – Wolff was left even more astounded by Antonelli’s achievement.
“To be honest, George’s lap is what we expected the car could do,” the Team Principal told F1 TV. “Not quite happy about the set-up and the upgrade we brought. Kimi pulled out such a miracle lap that I struggle to understand where that’s coming from.”
The result marks Antonelli’s first pole since the Belgian Grand Prix, as well as the team’s first Qualifying triumph since they introduced a major upgrade package in Malaysia that they’ve fought to maximise over recent rounds.
While it didn’t deliver the desired boost at first, it has seemed to work in the Silver Arrows’ favour at the Circuit of The Americas, where the 20-year-old could secure the Drivers’ Championship.
Wolff added: “We brought an upgrade package two races ago which didn’t perform as we expected. We had a guest that asked me what I expected from Qualifying and I said something between P3 and P5.
“Now we have a car on pole position and it looked very strong, so the car has it in it to be fast – we just need to understand why.
“The car is probably not as strong in race performance as the Ferraris and Verstappen, so we shall see how Kimi gets away, whether he’s able to hold onto P1.
“George, we just need to bring forward. We need to score points for the Constructors’ Championship, so both drivers matter very much tomorrow.”
