Carlos Sainz hails "best podium" of his career at Baku: "My first Smooth Operation in Williams"

Carlos Sainz claimed his first Williams podium with a third place finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

Carlos Sainz secured his first podium finish with Williams at the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix after crossing the line in third position.

The Spanish driver branded the podium as the best of his career as he celebrated on team radio on the cooldown lap.

"Vamos! Vamos! Best podium in my career. You cannot imagine how this tastes. Thank you so much. This is my first Smooth Operation in Williams!"

Sainz started the race from second position behind four-time champion Max Verstappen and ultimately finished third. Verstappen clinched a commanding victory and Mercedes' George Russell took second place.

"I cannot describe how happy I am and how good this feels. It tastes even better than my first ever podium," Sainz told James Hinchcliffe in a post-race interview.

"We have been fighting hard all year and we proved when we had the speed, we had it all year and everything comes together and we can do some amazing things together.

"We nailed the race, not one mistake and we managed to beat a lot of cars yesterday that we wouldn't have expected to beat."

Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Clive Rose / Getty Images

He added: "I'm extremely proud of everyone at Williams for pushing through a very difficult year. We have proven to everyone the massive step we took compared to last year.

"We are on the rise and the right direction. Unfortunately, with me, we had a lot of bad luck and incidents. Now I understand why it all happened because the first podium needed to come like this.

"It's just life. Life sometimes brings you these bad moments to give you a very nice one. This tastes much better than any other thing I was expecting.

"It's a life lesson to keep believing and trusting yourself and your team around you because sooner or later it always pays off."

Sainz joined Williams at the start of 2025 after being replaced by seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari. Since joining the Grove outfit, the 31-year-old has worked to adjust to the car and team, and has battled bad luck in a number of instances.