Sainz revels in magical Azerbaijan GP podium for Williams that 'tastes even better than my first'

Carlos Sainz struggled to describe "how good this feels" after clinching a stunning first podium with Williams at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Sainz has endured a tough season with the Grove-based outfit since joining from Ferrari, and arrived in Baku on a run of six Sunday’s without registering a point.

However, the Spaniard emphatically turned his form and luck around, setting the second-fastest time in a chaotic Qualifying session, before maintaining his position in the top three for the 51-lap duration, with only Mercedes' George Russell able to make his way past into second.

“Honestly, I cannot describe how happy I am or how good this feels,” said Sainz after the race. “It tastes even better than the first-ever podium that I did.

“We’ve been fighting hard all year and, finally today, we just proved that when we have the speed. We’ve had it all year, and when everything comes together, we can do some amazing things together.

“We nailed the race – not one mistake, and we managed to beat a lot of cars that, yesterday, I wasn’t expecting to beat.”

Despite his recent scoreless streak, Sainz has consistently shown the pace of the Williams, with various factors resulting in his inability to score – including technical issues and on-track collisions.

Asked about his pride at the ability shown by both himself and the team to convert a strong grid position into a podium, Sainz added: “I’m extremely proud of everyone at Williams for pushing through a very difficult year.

“We’ve proven to everyone the massive step that we took compared to last year. We are on the rise, we are heading in the right direction.

“Unfortunately, with me, we’ve had a lot of bad luck, a lot of incidents, and it was very difficult to convert all of that pace into results. But now I understand why it all happened, because the first podium needed to come like this, and it’s just life. Life sometimes brings you those bad moments to give you a very nice one, and this tastes much better than anything I was expecting.

“A life lesson – to keep believing, to keep trusting the team around you, your procedures and everything around you, because sooner or later, it always pays off.”