Carlos Sainz beat Lewis Hamilton to an F1 podium finish in 2025 on a memorable day for Williams in Azerbaijan .

After a terrific qualifying performance, Sainz lined up second on the grid alongside pole-sitter and eventual race winner Max Verstappen in Baku.

While Mercedes cleverly opted to go long on their one-stop strategy for George Russell, resulting in the Brit finishing in second place, Sainz held off the challenge of Kimi Antonelli in the other Mercedes to finish third – Williams’ first podium in more than four years.

Having lost his seat at Ferrari this year to Hamilton – who is yet to pick up a top-three finish for the Scuderia and finished eighth on Sunday – Sainz was elated to pick up just Williams’ second podium since 2017.

“I cannot describe how happy I am, how

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