Toto Wolff hails Kimi Antonelli as Mercedes shows pace…

Toto Wolff has praised his rookie driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli after an impressive drive to second in the Brazil Grand Prix sprint race. With the young Italian putting pressure on championship leader Lando Norris, both he and team-mate George Russell boasted impressive pace at Interlagos.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Wolff was quick to compliment his driver, but not before addressing Sauber driver Gabriel Bortoleto's violent crash on the final lap of the sprint race.

"First of all, Gabriel being okay is the most important. I hope there's no repercussions for him also because that was a proper, proper shunt. It reminded me in a way a little bit of Barrichello in Imola where the car skids airborne.”

Turning to his drivers' performances, he believes the Silver Arrows may hold an advantage at the São Paulo circuit.

“Yeah, I liked it. We had a good pace. Kimi was able to stay in the gearbox of Norris, which these days you don't see very often, obviously with the tyre advantage towards the end but the car had pace and clearly second fastest maybe if not fastest if he was ahead.”

With Russell starting behind Antonelli in fourth, Wolff was happy to see the two drivers giving each other space in what turned into a chaotic race.

“I think they were really fair at the beginning also. George gave Kimi space. I think Kimi was just very good today and if it was reversed and George was ahead, probably we had also a lot of pace because the car seems to be very good.”

Over 24 laps, McLaren's Lando Norris converted his pole into a win, adding to his championship lead over his team-mate Oscar Piastri, who crashed out of the race. But despite the papaya car's pace at the hands of the Briton, Antonelli managed to stay within striking distance, proving the Brackley machinery has genuine race pace as Russell rounded out the sprint podium.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes (Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

"It was a very fun race," Antonelli said following the race. "It was tricky conditions, especially at the beginning, but we tried to keep the pressure on Lando. Yeah, just came short, but tyre deg was quite big and the wind was picking up during the race, but it was a fun race.

"Confidence is high, but the field is so tight. At the end yesterday, it was hard to put a lap together, and I believe everyone did a few little mistakes. But we'll see today what we can do, but hopefully achieve the same result or even better."

That's 13 points for the Mercedes team today.