REPORT: Double points finish in Baku

Williams Racing are celebrating our best result since mid-2021 after late drama at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix saw Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto clinch P7 and P8.

Our duo had already climbed a position from their Qualifying results before taking to the grid after the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton started from the pit lane.

Franco and Alex enjoyed a clean opening tour of the 6km Baku City Circuit, retaining P8 and P9 as they set about on their split strategy - Franco starting on mediums and Alex on the hards.

Our Argentine racer stopped early on lap 10, hoping to undercut Fernando Alonso, however, the Aston Martin covered him off to retain position.

As those who started on medium tyres began to pit, Alex filtered up the order and managed to get as high as P3, keeping the McLaren of Lando Norris behind him.

Meanwhile, Franco was also climbing the order, passing both Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly on the main straight in the space of three laps.

Alex made his hard tyres last to lap 31 before peeling in for his only stop, returning just behind Franco and Nico Hulkenberg.

The Haas and Alex got past Franco on lap 36, and two laps later Alex managed to make his move on the German racer.

Alonso was the next car up the road for Albono to tackle, and he steadily reduced the two-time champion’s advantage in the remaining laps.

On ageing tyres it looked like our No43 was set to miss out on points, sitting in P11 with Lewis Hamilton hot on his tail.

As the laps ticked down, Franco found some extra pace and began pulling away from the Mercedes and started closing on the Haas.

With three laps to go, FC43 had reeled in Hulkenberg and made the move stick on the exit of T2, taking P10.

In the penultimate lap, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez tangled which eventually brought out the Virtual Safety Car, ending Alex’s charge, and seeing the final two laps ran at reduced speeds.

We were elevated to P7 and P8, our best team result since the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix and our biggest points haul of the modern ground effect generation.

"We know how difficult it is to get P9’s and P10’s in races, so to get P7 and P8 is luxurious and we’ll take that!" Alex shared post-race.

"We’ve moved in front of Alpine now in the championship, which was our target by the end of the year. It shows we’ve made good progress with the upgrade.

"It’s another weekend when we’ve been similar to the Aston on pace and we’ve scored points for the second race in a row. We were much quicker than we expected to be compared to the top teams and it was nice to be in that fight.

"Let’s see next week but, for this weekend, it’s been strong."

Franco ended the 42 year wait for an Argentine points scorer in F1, and was unsurprisingly thrilled after the chequered flag.

"To score my first points in Formula 1 is a fantastic feeling," Colapinto commented, "I’m so proud of this team for what we’ve already been able to achieve together."

I’m delighted to have points on the board to show for all the hard work and effort we’ve been putting in with it only being my second race.

"We had good pace today being very close to the Aston. To finish seventh and eighth alongside Alex means we’re now P8 in the Constructors’ Championship which is a good step forward and a motivator for the team.

"We still need to keep learning and improving together as it’s a long season with many races left. I’m looking forward to racing in Singapore for the first time next weekend."

Sven Smeets, Sporting Director, wrapped up a memorable day for the team by sharing: W"e decided to split strategy between the cars today to keep our options open as Baku is many times an incident rich race.

"The race started well for us, and we pitted Franco who started on the Medium tyre. As Alonso had pitted this freed up Alex who started on the Hard and he showed some great pace in his stint.

"When he started to struggle with his tyres, we pitted him a bit earlier than planned onto the Medium. After overtaking Hulkenberg and Franco, he started to chase Alonso who was a few seconds ahead of him.

"He came close to Alonso but a few laps before the end the Medium started to struggle so we decided to make sure we could go to the end with the tyre.

"Franco did a great job keeping Hamilton and Bearman behind and, when a struggling Hulkenberg in front of him touched the wall, it brought Franco into the points.

"We were settling for P9 and P10 until a late accident between Perez and Sainz moved us up to P7 and P8.

"This was a great afternoon for the whole team; we’ve been competitive the whole weekend and have been rewarded with our first double points finish since last season’s U.S. Grand Prix.

"Now we are looking forward to going to Singapore where we hope to bring the next upgrade to the car."