Wolff struggles to explain Antonelli’s ‘miracle lap’ for US GP pole

Toto Wolff says he is still trying to understand how Kimi Antonelli produced the lap that put him on pole for the United States Grand Prix, calling it a “miracle lap”. Antonelli set 1m 34.035s in the final qualifying segment. After a small error, he did not complete a second attempt, but Max Verstappen also failed to improve, leaving Antonelli in P1.

George Russell finished sixth in the other Mercedes, more than four-tenths behind Antonelli. Wolff said Russell’s lap showed what he expected the car to be capable of, while he was not fully satisfied with the setup and the upgrade. Russell’s position left Wolff even more astonished by Antonelli’s performance.

Antonelli’s pole was his first since the Belgian Grand Prix, and Mercedes’ first qualifying win since introducing a major upgrade package in Malaysia two races earlier. Wolff said the package had not performed as expected and that he had anticipated a qualifying position between third and fifth.

Wolff cautioned that Mercedes was probably not as strong in race performance as the Ferraris and Verstappen. He said it remained to be seen how Antonelli would get away and whether he could hold on to P1.