Giving his clearest hint yet that he will partner George Russell next season, Toto Wolff sings Kimi Antonelli's praises despite crashing out of FP1.

No sooner had the youngster posted the fastest time than he crashed out in the Parabolica after losing the rear of the car.

Quick to reassure the Italian as he sought to apologise, when he finally returned to the garage the Mercedes boss put a comforting arm around the 18-year-old.

"Most importantly he's ok, because the crash was 45G, so that's important," Wolff subsequently told reporters. "Second priority is to get the car ready for George, so the programme doesn't suffer too much.

"Hopefully it's going to be ok," he added, "it may arrive a little bit late, but it's going to be ok.

"And the third one, it's unfortunate because I guess, having had an hour's run, we would have seen some good performances. But that's what we always said, he's a rookie, he's very young, we are prepared to invest in his future.

"These moments, they will happen, they will continue to happen next year," he continued, clearly suggesting that the drive is Antonelli's, "but there will also be a lot of highlights.

"I think what we've seen today was we rather have a problem in slowing him down than making him faster because what we've seen from one and a half laps is just astonishing."

Asked about the youngster's reaction to the crash, which saw him suffer a snap of understeer mid-corner, Wolff said: "He apologised first of all, and I think this is what you need to do when you bring a car back that looks a bit like a Lego box falling on the ground to the floor.

"But he also said that the car, he felt so much confidence in the car, that the car was good. And I guess he was just beaten.

"Everybody started from lots of temperature," he added, "especially rear temperature, he was carrying this kind of speed, and that's why the rear went the way it stepped out."

Asked whether the incident might compromise his chance of the 2025 drive, Wolff was adamant.

"No, zero effect," he said. "I think the most important thing is to rely on ability. An FP1 that's gone wrong is not a reason why you decide to fall against the driver.

"A strong driver needs to recover from these things and cope with the pressure," he added. "Obviously this weekend wasn't easy for him because he still needs to compete in F2. Also you have all these shenanigans around you in Monza. An Italian that is being hyped for the first time in a Mercedes, that must be a heavy burden. But if he wants to be a champion one day, he needs to cope with that. I have no doubt that he can and he will."

Check out our Frinday gallery from Monza here.