Vowles: Sainz should have finished ninth, if not higher.

      The Italian Grand Prix was another round of the season for Williams in which only Alex Albon managed to reach the top ten, while Carlos Sainz was unlucky again.

      On lap 41 he was trying to pass Haas driver Oliver Bearman while fighting for 13th place, but the latter acted improperly and there was contact between the cars. That incident ruined the race for both drivers, and although the British driver received a 10-second penalty, that could no longer help Carlos. The race was commented on by James Vowles, team principal of Williams Racing.

      James Vowles: “Alex finished 7th and really deserves praise. He did an excellent first stint on the hard tyres, but Carlos also worked for the team during the race, helping to achieve a good result.

      I believe all of this confirms what we have said before: we have a quick car, but we must use its potential correctly. In qualifying we struggled to get the tyres to work reasonably well, and we need to learn how to do that — and fast. Then in the future we will be able to score more points.

      But in any case, only the leading cars, plus Ferrari and Mercedes, finished ahead of us on the track, and that shows that overall we are doing a pretty good job.

      As for Carlos, he had a good race. He was acting correctly when overtaking Oliver Bearman, and he was also in contention for a top-ten finish — I have no doubt he should have finished at least 9th, if not higher.

      But circumstances meant that Sainz earned nothing, and his disappointment is understandable. Our task is to support him, because we remain a strong and united team; that is one of our values, one of our strengths.

      Now we head to a round in Baku, which I think will also suit our car. We must perform well at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but to do that we need to get qualifying right. If we manage that, we will be able to fight for fairly high positions in the top ten, I am absolutely sure of that.”