Carlos Sainz: I am incredibly proud of our team.
Carlos Sainz's third place in Qatar allowed Williams to secure fifth place in the Constructors' Championship — their best result since 2017...
Carlos Sainz (3rd): "I'm happy. I'm incredibly proud of our team and today's result. We came into this round expecting it to be the toughest of the season for us, and today we made it to the podium.
We handled the race pace very well. The car was very quick, much quicker than we expected. We executed the strategy, tyres and the start excellently, kept things under control, and that brought us an unexpected podium. We have a lot to be proud of.
Everything came together for us today. The first half of the season was tough when nothing went right, but over the year we've improved in many areas, and today we took our chance and ran the race perfectly.
I'm thrilled with this podium because I absolutely didn't expect it."
Alex Albon (11th): "Starting on the Hard tyre, we wanted to take advantage of a clear track whenever the opportunity arose, but the safety car came out too early, and we had to change strategy. Moreover, because of that we had to finish on Mediums, which didn't suit us very well. The car was fine, as Carlos's result proves. It's a shame I couldn't achieve more.
The team has secured fifth place in the Constructors' Championship — it's a huge achievement for us; the team has taken a big step forward this year and can be proud of that."
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