MONZA, Italy -- Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said he knew ahead of Sunday's Italian Grand Prix that Kimi Antonelli had the potential to "walk over water" and win the race from 19th on the grid.
Antonelli stunned his home crowd at Monza by carving through the field in the first half of the race before passing Mercedes teammate George Russell for victory on Lap 50 of 53.
Though Antonelli, 20, started far back after a grid penalty for an engine change, Wolff said he knew ahead of the grand prix that the driver was in contention.
"I thought one of the two is going to win," he said. "Either George, because he was on pole, or Kimi because he's going to walk over water here in Monza. And I felt that yesterday also."
Asked why he was so sure about Antonelli's chances, he added: "It's been a while that I've seen driver's energy levels, attitude, mindset, or behavioral pattern, and I knew that that was his mission today, to win the race.
"And I chatted with his father yesterday. The father also saw that coming. These are the moments where you can see how a weekend is panning out through the sessions that a special moment could come."
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A crucial moment in the race came on Lap 28 when Mercedes took advantage of a virtual safety car period to pit Antonelli from second place and take on fresh tires.
Russell, who was leading at the time, stayed out on track on the same tires he had used since the Lap 4 restart, but Wolff said Mercedes did not know which of the two strategies would prove to be the winner.
"We didn't know what was the better strategy," he said. "At that stage, the system said that the one-stop [Russell's strategy] comes out ahead and that two-stop was coming close to the end but wouldn't catch.
"So that's what the software said. So you've got [to] hedge [a bet] at a certain stage, and that was pretty clear the obvious hedge."
