Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff: “Antonelli ahead of Hamilton – that was unexpected”

Kimi Antonelli lays his hand on the World Championship trophy. Thanks to a third-place finish at the Singapore Night Grand Prix, whilst George Russell finished only ninth, the Italian’s lead in the World Championship standings now stands at 102 points.

At best, there are still six races left in this Grand Prix season (Texas, Mexico, Brazil, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi), meaning 150 points are up for grabs.

That means: if Kimi wins in Austin, Texas, and Russell doesn’t finish higher than ninth, the Italian will be World Champion!

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff on the Bolognese driver’s race: “Kimi drove really well today. We told him that the aim was to score as many points as possible. We didn’t expect to be able to leave Lewis Hamilton behind us. In that respect, the result is better than we thought.”

“The new car also handled the corners reasonably well. Now we need to understand the new Evo package better and think about exactly what we’re going to do in Austin.”

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“Towards the end of the Grand Prix, it worked out well for Kimi that Norris and Hamilton were jostling a bit. He then overtook Norris and eventually Hamilton too, who was naturally defenceless with his tyres.”

Commenting on Mercedes’ tyre strategy, the 54-year-old Austrian said: “The soft tyres lasted surprisingly long at the start, whilst the medium compound didn’t look promising. After 15 or 20 laps, it wasn’t clear whether it would be a one-stop or two-stop race. It wasn’t clear at all. You can see the same with Ferrari, who split their strategy and thought they could get through with Lewis. That didn’t work out in the end.”

The Viennese driver on the Evo package, which Mercedes only fitted to Antonelli’s car (Russell had preferred to drive with the previous specification): “The car was competitive today. But I believe there’s an incredibly narrow window in which it works perfectly. Finding the right set-up to make the car fast is the real challenge. Now we’ll be using it again in Austin and see if it works there as well.”