Sainz: The first podium was supposed to be like this.

      Carlos Sainz finished third in Baku, giving Williams its first podium since 2021. Commenting on the result, the Spanish driver said that today's podium makes him even happier than his first career podium.

      Alex Albon finished eleventh but received a 10-second penalty for a collision with Franco Colapinto and dropped to thirteenth in the classification. In addition, Albon received two penalty points, bringing his total to four in a 12-month period.

      Carlos Sainz (3rd): "I'm at a loss for words to describe how happy I am and how great it is to achieve a result like this! It even feels better than my first podium.

      We've had to fight throughout the season, but the team proved that when the car has pace and we're able to put all the pieces together, we can achieve an amazing result together. We had a great race without making a single mistake, and yesterday we managed to get ahead of competitors we hadn't expected to.

      I'm very proud of all the staff at Williams who have been through a very tough year. We've shown everyone that we've taken a huge step forward compared to last year. The team is on the rise and moving in the right direction, but unfortunately I've been plagued by bad luck and various incidents.

      Now I understand why it happened — the first podium was meant to be like this. That's life — it presents hardships so it can later give very pleasant moments. The result feels much more vivid than I could have imagined.

      It's a life lesson. You have to keep believing in yourself and in the team, and sooner or later all the effort will pay off."

      The news is being updated.