Carlos Sainz said his third-placed finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was the best podium of his career after finally delivering for Williams, after his move from Ferrari. 

Having started on the front row alongside eventual race winner Max Verstappen in Baku, Sainz produced a flawless drive to clinch the 28th top-three finish of his career. 

The Spaniard also delivered Williams' first podium since George Russell's second place at a rain-delayed Belgian Grand Prix back in 2021, which was the 18th-longest gap between two podiums for a team in the history of the competition. 

Sainz has now stood on the podium with all three teams he has represented in his career (McLaren, Ferrari and Williams), becoming the 56th driver to do so.

"Vamos! Vamos! Best podium in my career. You cannot imagine how this tastes. Thank you so much. This is my first smooth operation with Williams," Sainz said. 

"I honestly can't describe how happy I am and how good this feels. It's even better than my first-ever podium that I had. 

"We've been fighting hard all year and finally, today we just proved that we have the speed, and we've had it all year.

"Everything comes together, and we can do some amazing things together, and today we nailed the race.

"There was not one mistake, and we managed to beat a lot of cars that yesterday I wasn't expecting to beat."

Carlos Sainz, back on the podium.

But this time, in BLUE pic.twitter.com/t6Xwa6lxte

— Atlassian Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) September 21, 2025

Indeed, with his podium in Azerbaijan, Sainz has now finished inside the top three in 21 different grands prix in Formula One. 

He enters the top 15 drivers with the most different grands prix podiums in the history of the competition, level with former team-mate Lando Norris and Ayrton Senna. 

The result was also a huge high in what has been a difficult first season with Williams for Sainz, having only scored 16 points prior to his 15-point haul on Sunday. 

Sainz, a four-time race winner, is now 12th in the drivers' championship, while Williams strengthened their grip on fifth place in the constructors' standings. 

"I'm extremely proud of everyone at Williams for pushing through a very difficult year," Sainz added. 

"I think we've proven to everyone the massive step compared to last year, and we are on the rise and going in the right direction.

"Unfortunately for me, we've had a lot of back luck, lots of incidents and found it very difficult to convert all that pace into results.

"I now understand why it all happened because the first podium needed to come like this, and it's just life.

"Life just sometimes brings you those bad moments to give you a very nice one."